Paddy Agnew: As Pope Francis was guided to his final resting place, it seemed fitting that his message seemed to be getting across to some politicians
Today at 15:38
On a glorious Roman spring day, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs, Lutherans, Anglicans and many expressions of the Orthodox Christian Church came together with 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs to join the Catholic Church and faithful in bidding farewell to Pope Francis.
In a development that the late and much-politicised pontiff would have appreciated, a seemingly perfect day became even better when some of the world's leaders, namely presidents Macron, Trump and Zelensky, along with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, held an impromptu summit in the hallowed surroundings of the Basilica of St Peter.
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Extra.ie
a day ago
- Extra.ie
Irish priest, 90, takes to streets of riot-torn LA to 'stand with' immigrant families
A 90-year-old Irish priest is currently at the centre of the ongoing riots in Los Angeles. Fr Peter O'Reilly has chosen to stand in solidarity with immigrant families amid unrest in the state of California due to protests against the ICE operations targeting immigrants. While Fr O'Reilly may now be a California-based cleric, he originally hails from none other than County Longford. A 90-year-old Irish priest is currently at the centre of the ongoing riots in Los Angeles. Pic: RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images The member of the church originally had planned to take part in a prayer vigil at LA's City Hall's steps, but his plans swiftly changed as the protest escalated. Speaking to RTE, Fr O'Reilly shared his experience: 'The meeting had been cancelled because of the fear of violence so I felt maybe the thing to do was maybe just mingle with the people and wearing my Roman collar, I thought that would be the best thing to do. 'To bear witness. To say, 'we stand with you,'' he added before further explaining the atmosphere. @rtenews A 90-year-old Irish priest in Los Angeles has attended one of the protests in the city over anti-immigration raids, as police fired rubber bullets around him. Fr Peter O'Reilly, who is originally from Abbeylara, Co Longford, said what is happening in Los Angeles is very personal for him as an immigrant himself. #losangeles #ireland #laprotests #trump #rtenews ♬ original sound – RTÉ News 'The mood was serious. It was animated. People were talking to each other. 'Maybe about 15 yards away were the group who set up the barriers, street barriers, which I found out were to be used to protect them from the rubber bullets fired by the police. They were firing them. I was not near the front, maybe 15 to 20 yards away,' he continued. 'The police were firing them maybe as a warning, do not riot. I had a feeling too because of what the mayor of Los Angeles had said, that this was not an insurrection. Fr Peter O'Reilly has chosen to stand in solidarity with immigrant families amid unrest in the state of California due to protests against the ICE operations targeting immigrants. Pic: RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images 'This is a manufactured thing from Washington, to create confusion and bring about violence rather than peace,' he mused. 'With the Irish experience of being discriminated against for many years and knowing the discrimination here in this country against the Irish. I felt there was something personal about where I was, some of these communities and knowing how many of them were marginalised because of the colour of their skin.' He concluded: 'These were hardworking family-oriented people, that we needed to stand with them and let them know we were with them and for them.' Cars were set alight by protestors while federal agents used tear gas to break up crowds over the weekend as tempers flared in LA following ICE [Immigration and Custom Enforcement] operations. More than 100 people have been arrested, with 44 arrested on Friday on suspicion of immigration violations during raids carried out by ICE. US President Donald Trump has signed an order to deploy the National Guard in a move heavily criticized by Governor of California Gavin Newsom, who said the President wanted a 'spectacle.' The Governor has been vocal about his disdain towards the President, stating that the 'commandeering a state's National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral.'
Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
90-year-old Irish priest on streets of riot-torn LA to 'stand with' immigrants
A 90-year-old Irish priest has told how he took to the streets during riots in Los Angeles to "stand with" immigrant families. Fr Peter O'Reilly, who has been based in California for decades, was one of several clergymen and women who demonstrated against an ICE crackdown on illegals ordered by US President Donald Trump. The retired cleric, who is originally from Co Longford, said ministers from various faiths had originally planned to have a prayer vigil on the steps of LA's City Hall. He told RTE: "The meeting had been cancelled because of the fear of violence so I felt maybe the thing to do was maybe just mingle with the people and wearing my Roman collar, I thought that would be the best thing to do. "To bear witness. To say, 'we stand with you'. "The mood was serious. It was animated. People were talking to each other. Maybe about 15 yards away were the group who set up the barriers, street barriers, which I found out were to be used to protect them from the rubber bullets fired by the police. "They were firing them. I was not near the front, maybe 15 to 20 yards away. "The police were firing them maybe as a warning, do not riot. I had a feeling too because of what the mayor of Los Angeles had said, that this was not an insurrection. "This is a manufactured thing from Washington, to create confusion and bring about violence rather than peace. "With the Irish experience of being discriminated against for many years and knowing the discrimination here in this country against the Irish. I felt there was something personal about where I was, some of these communities and knowing how many of them were marginalised because of the colour of their skin. "These were hardworking family-oriented people, that we needed to stand with them and let them know we were with them and for them."
The Journal
4 days ago
- The Journal
Deepfakes of the pope are racking up millions of views on Youtube and Tiktok
IT BEGAN WITH the 'dope pope' meme featuring a deepfake Pope Francis in early 2013 – and it's continuing today with fake sermons attributed to the new pope, Leo XIV. Bogus videos and audio of the pope have been racking up millions of views, while dozens of YouTube and TikTok pages have been churning out AI-generated messages delivered in the new pope's voice. It comes despite the pontiff stating from the earliest days of his papacy that he wants to stand up to the challenges AI poses to 'human dignity, justice and labour'. Dope pope In April 2013, an image of Pope Francis in a white puffer jacket was uploaded onto X, formerly Twitter, and took the internet by storm. This deepfake image, and many others like it such as Francis in a nightclub or on a motorcycle, were created by now widely-available Artificial Intelligence tools. Graphic highlighting a few notable areas of a viral AI-generated of Pope Francis. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo And yes, Francis saw the images in question. He described such deepfakes as in his memoir as 'images and voices that seem perfectly real but are false'. In his memoir, he also hit out at the 'concentration and exaggerated monetisation' of social media and how it has become 'vulnerable to disinformation and the targeted distortion of facts'. He added that an 'information system based on social networks in the hands of extremely powerful oligarchs can only represent a further danger that we must keep an eye on'. Hospital bed While the 'dope pope' trend was benign, more nefarious ones would come Francis's way. When he was close to death after being hospitalised with bilateral pneumonia in February, fake images spread online of Francis in a hospital bed wearing a respirator mask. A computer-generated image that appears to show Pope Francis This image is known to be fake, not least because the laws of the Catholic Church ban such images of a pope on his sickbed. New pope's AI challenges Meanwhile, there appears to be no let up in AI-generated images and video when it comes to the new pope. With titles such as 'Pope Leo XIV Vision', online posts have portrayed the pontiff supposedly offering a flurry of warnings and lessons he has never preached. For example, a 36-minute long video was recently uploaded to YouTube on the account 'Pan African Dreams', in which viewers are led to believe that Leo delivered an entire public address to Burkina Faso's President Ibrahim Traoré. And while some of the videos are labelled as AI-generated, this disclaimer is often hard to find and overlooked by users. Advertisement On YouTube, a label demarcating 'altered or synthetic content' is required for material that makes someone appear to say something they did not. But such disclosures only appear toward the bottom of each video's click-to-open description. AI disclaimer at the very bottom of a click-to-open description on an AI-generated Pope Leo video YouTube YouTube TikTok also requires creators to label posts sharing realistic AI-generated content, but this appears as a small disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. AI-generated video of Pope Leo XIV, with AI disclaimer in the bottom left corner TikTok TikTok In the latter years of his papacy, Francis warned about the misuse of AI and in January he published a document on the 'relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence'. He said the 'concentration of the power over mainstream AI applications in the hands of a few powerful companies raises significant ethical concerns'. He also voiced concern that AI could lead to 'harmful isolation' and warned against 'anthropomorphising AI'. Meanwhile, Francis warned that AI in the workplace could 'subject workers to automated surveillance, and relegate them to rigid and repetitive tasks'. He also worried about AI in education and how it 'provide answers instead of prompting students to arrive at answers themselves', which can lead to a failure to develop critical thinking skills. 'This responsibility concerns everyone' This concern over AI has been picked up by his successor, Pope Leo, the first pontiff from the United States. In an address to Cardinals just two days after becoming pope , Leo said he chose this papal name 'mainly because of Pope Leo XIII's historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution'. This document, a response to the state of industrial society in the late 19 th century, explicitly outlined worker's rights to a fair wage, safe working conditions and the right to belong to a trade union. Leo XIV told Cardinals that he sees himself 'called to continue in this same path' because today, there is 'another industrial revolution in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour'. Pope Leo XIV leads a Holy Mass for the beginning of his pontificate in St Peter's square on Sunday, 18 May Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo In an address to journalists a day later , Leo called on the news media to 'disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred'. He added that the media's 'mission' of creating 'spaces for dialogue and discussion' is 'every more necessary' due to AI. 'Its immense potential requires responsibility and discernment in order to ensure that it can be used for the good of all, so that it can benefit all of humanity. 'This responsibility concerns everyone,' said Leo. Later that week, Leo met with the Vatican's diplomatic corps and he again called for people to be 'truthful' and 'ethical' in their use of AI. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
