The leader of Hong Kong’s Catholics has emphasised the need to maintain a “better understanding” and “better relationship” between the Vatican and mainland China, saying that such “bridge-building” under the late Pope Francis should continue. Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, who is in Rome preparing for the coming conclave that starts on Wednesday to elect a…
The leader of Hong Kong’s Catholics has emphasised the need to maintain a “better understanding” and “better relationship” between the Vatican and mainland China, saying that such “bridge-building” under the late Pope Francis should continue. Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, who is in Rome preparing for the coming conclave that starts on Wednesday to elect a…
As entrances go, this one was both unexpected and welcome. That much was clear from the thunderous applause and cheers on Sunday as Pope Francis made his first public appearance since leaving a Rome hospital two weeks ago. Francis arrived, unannounced, on the dais in St. Peter’s Square near the end of a Mass that…
Pope Francis health has continued to improve in the week since he left the hospital after a weekslong stay, the Vatican said Tuesday. During Francis’ 38-day stay at Policlinico A. Gemelli in Rome, he was treated for pneumonia and other infections. He experienced two episodes — a breathing crisis and a bronchial spasm that caused…
The pope’s doctors did not think he was going to make it. “It’s terrible,” Pope Francis gasped during a breathing crisis last month. The pope, his hand bruised with needle pricks and his oxygen saturation dipping to a dangerously low 78 during his long hospitalization, acknowledged in a failing voice that he might die. He…
Pope Francis’s condition has improved enough that he will be discharged from a hospital in Rome on Sunday and sent to recover in the Vatican for at least two months, his doctors said on Saturday evening. They added that the case of pneumonia in both lungs was so severe that it had twice put his…
On Tuesday night, outside the Rome hospital where Pope Francis is being treated for a complex lung infection, the 8th King of Rome, a self-described “trash influencer” embarked on a secret mission. He wore a wig, hid his pink-and-blue-dyed beard behind a surgical mask and then ventured inside the hospital to show his followers what…
Flying balloons in the Vatican colors of yellow and white, dozens of children gathered on Sunday in the square of the Policlinico A. Gemelli, where Pope Francis has been hospitalized for more than four weeks, and chanted “Papa Francesco” and cheered, “Viva la Pace” — hurray for peace. Many held up signs, hoping that the…
Pope Francis has improved enough to no longer be considered in imminent danger from pneumonia and other infections, the Vatican said on Monday, but added that he would require more days of treatment in the Rome hospital where he has been for nearly a month. For weeks, doctors had said that Francis, who is 88…
Rome had spent months prepping up for the Roman Catholic Church Jubilee. It built tunnels, opened up squares and scrubbed moldy fountains. Now thousands of pilgrims were flocking from all over the world for the occasion — a year of penance and forgiveness that takes place every quarter century. The only thing missing was the…