“I wish I did not have to vote because I wish that Francis were still alive. But it is a fact that he has left us,” Cardinal Stephen Chow told Gerard O’Connell in an exclusive interview.
Gerard O’Connell
Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Backer of Cardinal Parolin attacks Pope Francis’ push for lay involvement in church governance
In a pre-conclave meeting, an Italian cardinal, and backer of Cardinal Parolin as next pope, attacked Pope Francis for opening positions of responsibility in the church to men and women not in holy orders.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Archbishop Costelloe: Pope Francis was ‘a force for unity in the world’
An exclusive interview with Archbishop Costelloe about the legacy of Pope Francis and what he hopes for from the conclave
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
How the College of Cardinals chose the date for the next conclave
The conclave to elect the next pope will open on May 7, Vatican officials announced today. The cardinals meeting in plenary assembly (called general congregations) in the Vatican decided the date this morning, April 28.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
The three surprises of Pope Francis’ funeral
Francis has always been known as “the pope of surprises.”
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Francis’ funeral: What to expect, including a procession not seen in 100 years
Pope Francis’ face was forever hidden from the world when his coffin was closed at 8 o’clock on Friday evening, April 25, just as the sun was setting over Rome.
Posted inFaith, News
St. Peter’s Basilica stays open all night as nearly 100,000 mourners pay respects to Pope Francis
So many mourners lined up to see Pope Francis lying in state in a simple wooden coffin inside St. Peter’s Basilica that the Vatican kept the doors open all night.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
A final goodbye to my friend, Pope Francis
My wife and I lost a friend on earth, Gerard O’Connell writes, but we now have a friend in heaven.
Posted inFaith, Features
Pope Francis, trailblazing Jesuit with a heart for the poor, dies at 88
When the cardinals voted to elect Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 265th successor of St. Peter on the evening of March 13, 2013, few of them imagined what kind of pope he would be.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis appears to crowds on Easter Sunday after brief meeting with JD Vance
Just halfway through his period of convalescence, Pope Francis not only appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday to give the Urbi et Orbi blessing—to the city of Rome (“urbi”) and to the world (“orbi”)—but he also drove among the crowd in his jeep.