Tag: Pope Francis

President Joe Biden has awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honour.

The award was presented to the pope during a phone call on Jan. 11. The president had originally been scheduled to meet with the pope at the Vatican at the weekend, but was forced to cancel his trip to oversee the federal response to the California wildfires.

The honour was conferred upon the pope with distinction, the first time Biden has granted the award with the status.

In the official White House citation, Biden praised Francis, the first pontiff from the Southern Hemisphere, as “unlike any who came before”.

“A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet,” read the citation. “Above all, he is the People’s Pope – a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”

Read Also: Nigerian cancer society demands ₦1b 2025 cancer control budget, HPV vaccine availability 

In a photo released by the White House, Cardinal Christophe Pierre — the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States — is seen standing next to the president in the Oval Office.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, a tradition that dates back to 1963, is presented to individuals “who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”

In 2004, Pope John Paul II was presented the honor by President George W. Bush and in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded Pope John XXIII with the medal.

Biden has held two in-person meetings with Francis since becoming the nation’s second Catholic president, but has a history with the pope that predates his tenure as president.

In 2021, Biden praised Francis as “the most significant warrior for peace I’ve ever met”.

Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals yesterday, significantly increasing the size of the College of Cardinals and further cementing his mark on the group of prelates who will one day elect his successor.

Aside from Asia, the other region where the church is growing is Africa, which got two new cardinals: the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monsignor Ignace Bessi Dogbo, and the bishop of Algiers, Algeria, Monsignor Jean-Paul Vesco.

Others on the list include a man who will be the oldest cardinal — Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat, who was once held hostage for six weeks in Colombia by leftist guerrillas — and the youngest — the 44-year-old head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, Bishop Mykola Bychok, named in a nod to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Read Also; Stop distracting Tinubu with 2027 presidential election- Mumuni warns APC chieftains 

The new cardinals will get their red hats at a ceremony, known as a consistory, on Dec. 8, an important feast day on its own that officially kicks off the Christmas season in Rome. It will be Francis’ 10th consistory to create new princes of the church and the biggest infusion of voting-age cardinals into the college in Francis’ 11-year pontificate. Acerbi is the only one of the new intake who is over 80 and hence too old to vote for new pope.

Usually the college has a limit of 120 on voting-age cardinals but popes often exceed the cap temporarily to keep the body robust as existing cardinals age out. As of Sept. 28, there were 122 cardinal-electors; that means the new infusion brings their numbers up to 142.

Among those named by history’s first Latin American pope were the heads of several major dioceses and archdioceses in South America. They are the archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, Vicente Bokalic Iglic; the archbishop of Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jaime Spengler; the archbishop of Santiago, Chile, Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib; the archbishop of Guayaquil, Ecuador, Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera; and the archbishop of Lima, Peru, Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio.

Pope Francis warned of the negative impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on the fabric of society during a visit to Singapore yesterday.

During a reception in the high-tech city-state, the head of the Catholic Church warned that AI should not make people forget about what are important – human relationships.

Technology developments risk isolating individuals and putting them into a false reality, he said.

Instead, AI should be used to bring people closer together and to promote understanding and solidarity within society, the pope added.

Pope Francis had also called on the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial democracies at this year’s G7 summit held in June in Italy, to ensure that AI was not left unchecked.

Singapore is the final stop of the 87-year-old pontiff’s longest foreign trip to date, lasting a total of 12 days.

Read Also: Abdul Samad Rabiu initiatives:$100 million interventions for Africa

Prior to this, he had visited Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

A large mass in a sports stadium is expected to attract about 50,000 people in the afternoon.

According to the Vatican, out of the nearly six million residents of the city-state, only 176,000 are Catholic.

The majority of the population has Chinese roots.

Pope Francis would fly back to Rome on Friday.

Multiple victims of sexual abuse committed by the Catholic Church in Belgium have called on Pope Francis to recognise their suffering in an open letter published yesterday.

“Although you have repeatedly taken up this subject with clarity and force of conviction, you have never addressed us, the victims or more precisely the survivors – as a whole,” said the open letter published by local media.

Read Also: Sanwo-Olu appoints three key aides to strengthen Lagos leadership

“Isn’t it time to send the world this precious missive that so many shattered lives need, often without them even knowing it?” the letter said.

Published ahead of the Pope’s visit to Belgium later in September, where the pontiff is planning to meet with victims of the Church, the letter by six survivors detailed their demands to the pontiff.

The victims called on the church to reflect on obligatory celibacy for clerics as “a weakened priest is a man who can drift to the worst.”

Pope Francis has deplored the state of democracy yesterday in a stern warning to “populists” during a short visit to Trieste in Italy’s northeast.
His caution comes ahead of a 12-day trip to Asia, which is the longest of his papacy.
“Democracy is not in good health in the world today,” Pope Francis said during a speech at the city’s convention centre to close a national Catholic event, AFP reported.
Pope Francis also warned against “ideological temptations and populists” on the day that France holds the second round of a snap parliamentary vote that looks set to see the far right National Rally party take the largest share of the vote.
“Ideologies are seductive. Some people compare them to the Pied Piper of Hamelin: they seduce but lead you to deny yourself,” he said in reference to the German fairytale, as per the report.

Read Also: Pope Francis concerned over frequent kidnappings in Nigeria

Ahead of last month’s European parliament elections, bishops in several countries also warned about the rise of populism and nationalism, with far-right parties already holding the reins to power in Italy, Hungary and the Netherlands, the report added.
Pope Francis also urged people to “move away from polarisations that impoverish” and hit out at “self-referential power”.
After Venice in April and Verona in May, the half-day trip to Trieste, a city of 200,000 inhabitants on the Adriatic Sea that borders Slovenia, marked the third one within Italy this year for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has suffered increasing health problems in recent years, it added.
The Pope addressed 8,500 people gathered in the Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia, urging them to renew their commitment to pray and work for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, Myanmar and wherever there is war.