Pope Francis dies at age 88

O

Offbeat

Son Montuno
www.nbcnews.com

Pope Francis dies at 88

Francis is expected to be buried at the ancient Basilica of St. Mary Major, which lies outside the Vatican walls. A conclave will soon begin to elect the new leader of the Catholic Church.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

Will be interesting to see in which direction the next Pope will take the Catholic Church in!

Isn’t the previous Pope Benedict still alive?

In 2013, Francis succeeded retired Pope Benedict XVI as the 266th pontiff, becoming the first Jesuit and non-European to hold the church’s highest office in more than 1,000 years, leading more than 1 billion Catholics around the globe.

I didn’t realise he was first non European Pope. It says in more than 1000 years. Given we are in 2025 AD, does it meant there was a non-European Pope in the first millennia ?
 
Last edited:
Offbeat said:
I didn’t realise he was first non European Pope. It says in more than 1000 years. Given we are in 2025 AD, does it meant there was a non-European Pope in the first millennia ?
Click to expand...

Many. Early Christians were probably more in other continents than very Europe in current understanding. Also what Europe means changes all the time.
 
Smejmoon said:
Many. Early Christians were probably more in other continents than very Europe in current understanding. Also what Europe means changes all the time.
Click to expand...
Then I looked at wikipedia. Look at these lines. Several popes came from that region with many lines.

Possible_definitions_of_the_boundary_between_Europe_and_Asia.png
 
Offbeat said:
I didn’t realise he was first non European Pope. It says in more than 1000 years. Given we are in 2025 AD, does it meant there was a non-European Pope in the first millennia ?
Click to expand...
Middle east and northern africa were part of the roman empire, some popes of the early centuries came from there (mostly today's Syria). Islam came to these areas only later in 7th century. But already in roman age the term europe was limited to north of the mediterranean and north of bosporus, so although being romans they were not europeans - but the word "europeans" was never written before 8th century, it only started having sense when islam appeared.
 
Btw the pope is buried just 300 m from the location where Rome mambo festival will happen in a month - maybe some catholic on2 dancers fancy going now.
 
Offbeat said:
Will be interesting to see in which direction the next Pope will take the Catholic Church in!

Isn’t the previous Pope Benedict still alive?

In 2013, Francis succeeded retired Pope Benedict XVI as the 266th pontiff, becoming the first Jesuit and non-European to hold the church’s highest office in more than 1,000 years, leading more than 1 billion Catholics around the globe.

I didn’t realise he was first non European Pope. It says in more than 1000 years. Given we are in 2025 AD, does it meant there was a non-European Pope in the first millennia ?
Click to expand...
Pope Benedict passed away in December 2022. I have a suspicion I may have seen him at a mass in St Peter's Cathedral in Sept 2021. My wife is catholic, and we visited Rome and attended a mass. There was a very old person in plain religious robes in the special section of the pews reserved for priests. It could have been him.

The Catholic Church is in trouble. The only region where Catholicism is growing is Africa*. But, the African cardinals are the most conservative of all. It would be tough for all other Catholics to accept that. That is even before any racist attitudes towards a black pope arise.

I think the Cardinals know they have to do something bold but they cannot do it in a way that undermines the church as a whole.

*I suspect the growth of Catholicism in Africa is due to the population growth as a whole on the continent not due to converts from other religions.
 
Conclave 2025....Black smoke has risen from the Sistine Chapel chimney, meaning no pope was elected during the first round of voting Wednesday. Voting resumes tomorrow

 
As the cardinal electors took the oath of secrecy before the start of the papal conclave, CBS News examined some of the top prospective candidates to succeed the late Pope Francis. Here are some of the front-runners to be the next pope

 
m.jpost.com

India kills terrorist who was indirectly involved in Daniel Pearl murder | The Jerusalem Post

Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief, was beheaded on camera by al-Qaeda affiliated Pakistani terrorists in 2002.
m.jpost.com m.jpost.com

I saw this new last night while following the events in the sub-continent. While the western media is barely reporting much on the dangerous conflict in any details (it is fourth or fifth story with papal conclave being 1st or 2nd rank story on both Google news and Apple News)

I thought this would make to the front pages and TV news cycle given how much outrage and shock was expressed at the beheading. WSJ itself hasn’t carried the story (not showing up in search result), while its analysis of the conflict is one of few long pieces in the American and International media.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top