The Vatican has detailed laws, rituals and norms to transfer papal power if a pope dies or resigns. But none of them apply when he is sick or even unconscious.
Pope Leo XIV
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo’s lung surgery concludes ‘positively,’ Vatican says
“The operation has concluded positively, within the time and ways that were envisaged,” and “the Holy Father is now back in his room,” the Vatican said in a brief statement.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
‘Amoris’ meeting discusses divorce and remarriage among human ‘fragilities’
Cardinal Farrell invited the bishops and the 22 lay participants at the meeting to “speak truthfully” and listen to stories of the “complexity of family life.”
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope will enter hospital Tuesday for surgery to remove lung nodule
Following the news of the pope’s imminent hospitalization, messages of good wishes and prayers for his health have arrived from church leaders in all parts of the world.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope to undergo surgery to remove ‘small, localized lump’ in lung
According to the Holy See Press Office, the pope’s surgery to remove a lung nodule is scheduled for this week, and the hospital stay is expected to be about one week.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
Pope Leo confirms Cardinal Tagle as Dean of the College of Cardinals
This important office plays a prominent role in papal transitions and conclaves.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
‘Amoris Laetitia’ and its tough questions are here to stay
Some critics of Pope Francis had remained hopeful that a Leo papacy would bring some reversals of his teachings. Instead, in almost every case, Leo has doubled down, as he is doing this week.
Posted inPodcasts
Why the Catholic Church still struggles to minister to families
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac Davis and Ashley McKinless speak with Joseph de Viveiros, C.R., about the pastoral consequences of Pope Francis’ groundbreaking 2016 document on family life, “Amoris Laetitia.”
Posted inShort Take
Vatican II shows us what is beautiful about the church
Vatican II invited the church to rediscover how the Gospel becomes beautiful when embodied in the life of the Christian community.
Posted inVatican Dispatch
‘We have much to learn from families’: Pope Leo welcomes bishops to ‘Amoris Laetitia’ meeting
Pope Leo asked the bishops gathered at the Vatican for a meeting on the family to “recognize the work of grace even in situations marked by limits, wounds and apparent failure.”