St. Mary Church

Vatican City, Nov 8, 2023 / 06:45 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will publish an autobiography next year in which he recounts memories of historical events from the outbreak of World War II to the collapse of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

HarperCollins Publishers announced Tuesday that it will publish the pope’s book, “Life, My Story Through History,” in the spring of 2024 in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America.

“In this book we tell a story, the story of my life, through the most important and dramatic events that humanity has experienced over the past 80 years,” Pope Francis said in a statement released by the publisher on Nov. 7.

“This book was written so that people, especially younger people, can listen to the voice of an elderly person and reflect on what our planet has experienced, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”

The book was co-written by Vatican journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, who interviewed Pope Francis for Italian television specials in 2021 and 2022 and recently published a book in Italian about exorcists featuring anecdotes from the pope.

According to HarperCollins, the book will feature the pope’s recollections of the start of World War II, the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the collapse of the Twin Towers, the great economic recession of 2008, the resignation of Benedict XVI, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Born in 1936 in Argentina, Pope Francis was only 2 years old when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, launching World War II, and 8 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in February 2001, just months before the Sept. 11 attacks, and served as president of the Argentine bishops’ conference in 2008. He was 76 years old when he was elected pope following the historic resignation of Benedict XVI.

The pope’s book, which is not classified as a memoir, will also touch on current global issues, including abortion, racial discrimination, climate change, atomic weapons, war, and social inequalities.

Pope Francis has authored numerous books, including a book-length interview with a Spanish missionary titled “The Strength of Vocation” in 2018, “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future” in 2020, and an interview with an Italian psychologist called “Fear as a Gift” in 2023.

The pope’s first book, “The Name of God is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli,” became a New York Times bestseller in 2016.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 7, 2023 / 10:30 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s pediatric hospital has offered to treat 8-month-old baby Indi Gregory after a British court ruled that she be removed from life support against her parents’ wishes.

Gregory, who was born in February, suffers from a rare degenerative mitochondrial disease and has been receiving life-sustaining treatment on a ventilator at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, England.

After England’s high court ruled that it was in the child’s “best interests” to be taken off life support, Gregory’s parents appealed to take her to Rome for treatment, an appeal that was denied by a British judge over the weekend.

The Italian government decided in an emergency meeting on Monday to grant the critically ill child Italian citizenship and to cover the cost of her medical treatment at the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù hospital.

“They say there isn’t much hope for little Indi, but until the very end, I’ll do what I can to defend her life,” Italian President Giorgia Meloni wrote on social media on Nov. 6. “And to defend the right of her mamma and papa to do all that they can for her.”

The Bambino Gesù hospital has previously offered medical treatment to other critically ill children, including Alfie Evans in 2018 and Charlie Gard in 2017, both of whom were ultimately denied the chance to travel to Italy by U.K. courts and died days after being removed from life support.

Christian Concern has published a letter from the president of the Bambino Gesù hospital outlining “a detailed treatment plan” for the child, which includes “life-sustaining treatment and palliative care to ensure Indi’s survival and comfort while the treatments take effect.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre supporting the Gregorys’ case, has noted that this is believed to be the first time that a parent’s appeal against an order to withdraw life-sustaining treatment has been rejected by the Court of Appeal without a hearing.

“The law is there to protect life and the most vulnerable in our society. What is happening in this case sets a very worrying precedent with regard to that principle,” Williams said.

“It is very concerning that a child can be held against the parents’ wishes when they have alternative treatment available.”

With the newly granted Italian citizenship, the child’s parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, can appeal to the Italian consulate in Britain to request that their daughter be airlifted to Italy for treatment, according to Reuters.

Simone Pillon, an Italian lawyer assisting the Gregory family, wrote on Nov. 7: “We are working to find an agreement between the two countries to satisfy the family’s request and treat Indi in Rome.”

In response to the Italian government’s decision, Dean Gregory, Indi’s father, said: “My heart fills up with joy that the Italians have given Claire and I hope and faith back in humanity. The Italians have shown us care and loving support and I wish the U.K. authorities were the same.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 6, 2023 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis is continuing his efforts for peace in the Holy Land. As confirmed by the Holy See, on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 5, the Holy Father had a conversation with the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi.

The Vatican has limited itself to confirming that the call took place at the request of Raisi, who, according to a statement from the Iranian president’s office, thanked the Holy Father for his calls for peace and said that it is duty of followers of all Abrahamic religions to "support the oppressed people of Palestine."

Raisi asked the Holy Father to exert his influence in the West to end the attacks in Gaza, which he called “the greatest genocide of the century.”

He also urged Pope Francis to “correctly explain the position of the oppressor and the oppressed” in the conflict.

In his Nov. 5 Angelus, Pope Francis renewed his call for a cease-fire and said he hoped that “avenues will be pursued so that an escalation of the conflict might be absolutely avoided, so that the wounded can be rescued and help might get to the population of Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely serious.”

He also called for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, especially children.

The phone call was in addition to the different conversations the pontiff has had with various leaders since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

On Oct. 22, Pope Francis talked by phone about the conflict with U.S. President Joe Biden and focused on “the need to identify paths of peace.”

The Holy Father also received a phone call on Oct. 26 from the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with whom he discussed the situation in the Holy Land.

In addition, on Oct. 27, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin asked that an escalation in the war between Israel and Hamas be avoided and announced the possibility of a meeting between Pope Francis and the families of the hostages that the terrorist group is holding in Gaza.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, secretary for relations with states, also held a telephone conversation with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, on Oct. 30.

In the conversation, proposed by the Iranian president, Gallagher expressed “the serious concern of the Holy See about what is happening in Israel and Palestine.”

On Nov. 3, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis had a telephone conversation with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 6, 2023 / 08:55 am (CNA).

A cardinal and canon lawyer has denied reports that he is involved in changing the papal election process to make it more synodal.

The Pillar and The Remnant websites reported Nov. 4 that Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, an expert in Church law closely associated with the Vatican, had been tasked by Pope Francis with drafting revisions to conclaves.

The changes being considered, they reported, include changing pre-conclave meetings, called general congregations, to employ Synod on Synodality-style small-group discussions and limiting participation in those meetings to cardinals eligible to vote — that is, cardinals under 80.

“I do not know anything about it and any implication I have in it is a pure lie,” Ghirlanda told EWTN News via email on Monday morning.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni also denied knowledge of such a document in a statement to CNA Nov. 6.

The Remnant also reported Nov. 4 that Pope Francis is considering a proposal by Ghirlanda to allow laypeople to participate in the conclave, including the vote for a new pope.

The Pillar, citing “a senior canon lawyer close to the Vatican,” reported that knowledge of the process to reform conclaves “is widespread in Vatican canonical circles, as is the role of Cardinal Ghirlanda.”

General congregations are preparatory meetings of the College of Cardinals held every day before the start of the election. They are a time for cardinals to familiarize themselves with the regulations concerning conclaves and, according to the norms in force, to “express their views on possible problems, ask for explanations in case of doubt, and make suggestions.”

During general congregations, cardinals can address the entire college. But one of the proposed changes, according to The Pillar, is to make these exchanges into “spiritual conversations” of smaller groups of cardinals, similar to the small-group discussions at the Synod on Synodality assembly in October.

The papal election process and the sede vacante, the period between a pope’s death or resignation and the election of his successor, are regulated by St. John Paul II’s 1996 apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis and Pope Francis’ 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

Pope Benedict XVI made two revisions to Universi Dominici Gregis during his papacy, stipulating that in case of a deadlock, the election must be decided by a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority and that a conclave can start sooner or later than 15 days after a pope’s death.

Conclaves, which take place in the Sistine Chapel, are held under strict secrecy. The cardinals who participate take an oath to “observe absolute and perpetual secrecy” about the ballots and their scrutiny from anyone outside the College of Cardinals under penalty of automatic excommunication.

According to the law of the Holy See, during a sede vacante, “all heads of curial institutions and members cease from their office,” though secretaries “attend to the ordinary governance of curial institutions, taking care of ordinary business only.”

Pope Francis ruled earlier this year that the office of the auditor general, which is responsible for auditing the financial statements of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, and which does not have a secretary, may also continue its “ordinary administration” in the case of a vacant papal see.

The other positions that remain in place during a sede vacante are the major penitentiary, who deals with issues relating to the sacrament of confession and indulgences; the camerlengo, who oversees the preparations for a papal conclave and manages the administration of the Holy See during the interregnum; and the papal almoner.

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Vatican City, Nov 3, 2023 / 07:05 am (CNA).

At a Mass for Pope Benedict XVI and deceased cardinals and bishops on Friday, Pope Francis urged Christians, especially pastors, to be the humble servants of others.

“I like to recall the very first words with which Pope Benedict described himself following his election: ‘a humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord,’” the pope said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 3.

“Indeed, Christians, especially the pope, the cardinals, and the bishops, are called to be humble laborers: to serve, not to be served and to put the fruits of the Lord’s vineyard before their advantage,” he added. “What a fine thing it is to renounce ourselves for the Church of Jesus!”

Pope Francis presided on Friday morning at a Mass of intercession for the repose of the souls of Pope Benedict XVI and the six cardinals and 147 bishops and archbishops of the Catholic Church who died since November 2022.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re was the celebrant of the Mass, which took place at the Altar of the Chair, and cardinals and bishops concelebrated.

“Let us pray for our beloved deceased brethren,” Pope Francis said in his homily. “Their hearts were pastoral, compassionate, and humble, for the Lord was the center of their lives. In him may they find eternal peace.”

The Mass for deceased cardinals and bishops is celebrated every year at the Vatican during the week of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days.

“Benedict XVI, whom we remember today, together with the cardinals and bishops who died in the past year, wrote in his first encyclical that the program of Jesus is ‘a heart that sees,’” Francis said, quoting from Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”).

“How many times did he keep reminding us that faith is not primarily an idea to be understood or a moral precept to be followed but a person to be encountered,” he said. “That person is Jesus Christ, whose heart beats with love for us, whose eyes look with pity upon our suffering.”

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected at length on the virtue of Christian humility, which he said “is not simply one virtue among others, but the basic disposition of life: believing ourselves to be in need of God, making room for him and putting all our trust in him.”

“It is the humble, the poor in spirit, who reveal to us the ‘littleness’ so pleasing to the Lord, the path that leads to heaven. God seeks the humble, those who hope in him and not in themselves and their own plans,” the pope said.

“God loves humility,” he added, “because it permits him to interact with us. Even more, God loves humility because he himself is humble. He comes down to us; he lowers himself; he does not impose himself; he makes room for us.”

Pope Francis also reflected on compassion as demonstrated by Jesus in St. Luke’s Gospel, proclaimed at Mass.

In Luke 7:11–17, Jesus encounters a widow following behind her only son who had died as he was being carried out of the city: “When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you, arise!’ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

“Jesus, as today’s Gospel shows, halts before the tragedy of death,” the pope explained. “Here we see our God, whose divinity shines forth in contact with our sorrow and grief, for his is a heart full of compassion.”

“The raising of that young man, the gift of life that overcomes death, has its source precisely there, in the compassion of the Lord, who is moved by death, the greatest cause of our suffering. How important it is to communicate that same look of compassion to all those who grieve for the death of their loved ones,” he said.

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