Pope Francis marks 12 years as head of Catholic church in hospital
Francis, who was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14, spent another tranquil night, the Vatican said in its brief morning statement on Thursday.
A chest X-ray confirmed improvements, the Vatican said on Wednesday, just two days after doctors declared he's no longer in imminent danger of death. The latest medical bulletin said the 88-year-old pope's condition remained stable but had a complex picture considering his overall fragility.
Following the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, then-Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the new pope on March 13 of that year.
During his 12 years in office, Francis has been a voice for compassion and peace. He has reformed the Vatican government and taken action against clerical child abuse. However, some challenges and criticisms remain.
Battle against sex abuse
Dealing with the worldwide scourge of sexual abuse by clergy and its cover-up was one of the biggest challenges for Pope Francis when he took office in 2013.
A 2018 trip to Chile proved a turning point. Francis initially defended a Chilean bishop against allegations he covered up the crimes of an elderly priest, demanding the accusers show proof of his guilt.
He later admitted making 'grave mistakes' in the case – a first for a pope. He summoned all of Chile's bishops to the Vatican, after which they all submitted their resignations.
Later that year, he stripped the cardinal title from abusive US priest Theodore McCarrick, and in 2019 removed his status as a priest. Also in 2019, he held an unprecedented summit that heard from victims, where he promised an 'all-out battle' against clerical abuse.
Concrete changes followed, from opening up Vatican archives to lay courts to making it compulsory to report suspicions of abuse and any attempts to cover it up to Church authorities.
However, activists say he has not done enough. 'Structurally, they [the Catholic Church] retain all the elements of cover-up: Lack of transparency, lack of external oversight, lack of mandatory severe sanctions,' one campaigner, Anne Barrett Doyle, told the AFP news agency last year.
Diplomacy
Francis has travelled widely, making 47 trips overseas that have given priority to what he calls the 'peripheries': Countries with small or marginalised Catholic communities.
He regularly calls for peace in hotspots such as Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine, and has promoted dialogue with other faiths, particularly Islam.
genocide in Gaza.
The son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, Francis has strongly defended the rights of migrants, including criticising United States President Donald Trump's plans for mass deportation.
In his first trip outside of Rome, Pope Francis visited the island of Lampedusa, where he met with migrants who fled from North Africa.
Francis is also a vocal campaigner for the environment. In his groundbreaking 2015 encyclical 'Laudato Si' (Praise be to You), he urged the world to act quickly to tackle climate change, saying rich countries bore the most responsibility.
Compassion, social justice, reform
A liberal who loves being among his flock, the Jesuit has sought to forge a more open Catholic Church, particularly towards divorce and inclusion of LGBTQ members.
The approach has angered traditionalists, in particular his 2023 decision to authorise blessings of same-sex couples in some cases. The Vatican was forced to clarify its position after an outcry in Africa and the United States. One German cardinal, Gerhard Muller, denounced Francis's 'doctrinal confusion' in a 2023 book.
From decentralising power and increasing transparency to providing greater roles for laypeople and women, Francis has implemented fundamental reforms of the Roman Curia, the central government of the Holy See.
The reforms were consolidated in a 2022 constitution that reorganised the Vatican's dicasteries, or ministries.
Francis particularly took aim at the murky, scandal-tainted finances of the Vatican, creating a special secretariat for the economy in 2014, clamping down on corruption and stepping up scrutiny of investments and the Vatican Bank, which led to the closure of 5,000 accounts.
Francis also revolutionised the Synod, a Catholic discussion body, by involving lay members including women. Since 2021 it has looked at the future of the Church, but key decisions, such as allowing women to become deacons, are not due until June this year.
In his institutional reforms, Francis has also faced strong opposition, with some critics accusing him of 'tyrannical' behaviour.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Qatar Tribune
6 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Israel kills over 90, including dozens of Gaza aid seekers
Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed more than 90 people in the last 24 hours, including dozens of aid seekers, according to health officials. Condemnation grews as Israeli attack on the only Catholic church in the besieged territory killed at least three people and wounded 10. Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 58,667 people and wounded 139,974, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive. (agencies) page 3
Qatar Tribune
13-07-2025
- Qatar Tribune
In already precarious industry, US musicians struggle for health care
Agencies In 2019, American musician Jon Dee Graham suffered a heart attack that left him 'dead' for several minutes -- a scare that inspired his album, 'Only Dead For a Little While.' Eighteen months later he had a stroke. And now, the 66-year-old is facing his biggest health challenge yet -- and like most musicians, he's underinsured. Graham suffered an infection following spinal surgery that's developed into sepsis, and his son said he needs intravenous antibiotic treatments twice daily. But because his treatment is at home, William Harries-Graham said Medicare -- the U.S. federal health program that insures elder adults -- won't cover his father. Harries-Graham said the hospital demanded payment upfront in the 'thousands of dollars.' The artist 'fighting for his life' couldn't afford it, and recently launched a campaign to sell his drawings, a hobby that has become a means of survival. Graham's story is not uncommon: Many musicians confront the same health insurance nightmares all Americans do, navigating a labyrinthian system rife with out-of-pocket costs. But musicians are gig workers, which makes it even harder. Most working artists aren't rich and have variable income, in a cutthroat industry where employer-subsidized insurance for musicians is rare. Pop phenom Chappell Roan underscored the issue on one of music's biggest platforms earlier this year at the Grammys, calling out record labels for not insuring their artists in front of industry heavyweights as she accepted the prize for Best New Artist. Roan said she herself was dropped from her label and went uninsured for a time: 'It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized,' she said onstage. 'Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.' About a month after Roan's statement, glam punk pioneer David Johansen died at 75 years old. His death came just weeks after he had started a GoFundMe to support his cancer treatment. In 2024, Matthew Sweet, the 1990s-era alt rocker, suffered a stroke while on tour. He was uninsured, so his management created a similar online crowdsourcing fundraiser. It's raised more than $640,000 to date to support his long-term recovery. But such crowdsourcing is a stop-gap, said Tatum Hauck-Allsep, founder and CEO of the Nashville-based Music Health Alliance that helps musicians negotiate medical bills. 'In some cases, things like a GoFundMe is a great resource, but in other cases, it's just a patch. We want to find a long-term solution,' Hauck-Allsep told AFP. She applauded Roan for highlighting the issue, but said insurance from record labels isn't necessarily what artists want, because it could mean they need to become employees, rather than independent artists. Still, 'there should be an easier pathway to health care access,' she said. Bruce Iglauer, head of the blues label Alligator Records, echoed Hauck-Allsep's point, saying that artists are self-employed. 'We guarantee recording budgets and royalty rates, but have no input into, or knowledge of, what other income the artists are making,' Iglauer said. 'They are not getting weekly paychecks from us.' And smaller labels say increasingly thin margins would make providing insurance impossible: 'The costs of manufacturing have gone up, physical sales have gone down. Streaming sales pay paltry sums,' said Kenn Goodman, founder and CEO of Chicago-based indie record label Pravda Records. 'It's just not financially feasible,' he added. 'I wish it was.' Many U.S. musicians get health care through the Barack Obama-era Affordable Care Act -- but that coverage is under threat by the Donald Trump administration, which is vying to complicate health care access, and perhaps eventually scrap the system altogether. That would be a 'disaster,' said Paul Scott, director of the Healthcare Alliance for Austin Musicians, a non-profit that helps about 3,200 musicians a year in Texas get signed up for coverage under the government health care plan. Many ACA plans still don't come cheap, but it's made a huge difference for access, he said. Jettisoning the ACA would likely mean increased prices that would prompt a lot of artists to 'drop their health insurance,' Scott said. 'And that will be a hit to our safety net hospitals and charity care.' As for Graham, selling his sketches has successfully funded his first few weeks of treatment. But his son doesn't know if that will be enough. And Harries-Graham worries about those who can't find fundraising support thanks to their fame. 'I don't know what someone else would have done,' he said. 'They would have been yet another person who goes into severe medical debt. That is terrifying.'
Qatar Tribune
03-06-2025
- Qatar Tribune
Awqaf minister tours Qatar pilgrims' camps at holy sites of Mina, Arafat
QNA Makkah Al Mukarramah Minister of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs and Head of the Qatari Hajj Mission HE Ghanem bin Shaheen bin Ghanem Al Ghanim visited the camps of Qatari pilgrims in Mina and Arafat to assess the level of readiness and ensure the full availability of services. The minister also toured the public facilities allocated to Qatar's pilgrims to verify their safety, functionality, and high operational efficiency, as well as their distribution across the 17 Qatari campaigns for the 1446 AH Hajj season in accordance with the number of pilgrims in each campaign. Qatar, as enjoined by the prudent leadership, highly prioritises pilgrims' safety and comfort and continues to have the most premium logistical, medical, and religious services in place in order to make this year's pilgrimage an exceptional model in terms of preparation, execution, and organisation, Al Ghanim underlined. He added that this model should best suit pilgrims from Qatar and reflects an honourable image of the nation in serving the fifth pillar of Islam. He commenced his tour from Arafat, where he carefully listened to a detailed explanation about all equipment, services, and utilities in place that were executed by the company under the supervision of the Advisory Committee and the Holy Sites Services Unit of the Qatari Hajj Mission, in line with the highest approved standards and specifications and with the refined design and layout prepared for camp facilities, rendering it one of the most exceptional camps in Arafat in terms of organisation and integrated amenities. During his tour in the Holy Site of Mina, the minister inspected the Qatari camps that were outfitted with specifications that best suit the pilgrims' needs, designed as per best raw materials, along with the men's camps that have been separated from the women's camps. They have been entirely equipped with all utilities, in addition to fitting toilets with the state-of-the-art devices based on the highest standards customarily observed by Qatar's pilgrims. The minister lauded the energised efforts made by the Makkah Hospitality Company through its positive collaboration with the advisors and the mission's Holy Sites Services Unit and backed by the facilitation provided by the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, HRH the Crown Prince, and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in Saudi Arabia. The Holy Site of Arafat camp has undergone a full-scale infrastructure revamp and comprehensive upgrade, featuring purpose-built tents of diverse sizes allocated to the Qatari Hajj campaigns. The camp has been fitted with fully furnished and air-conditioned rest areas, while the grounds were paved with premium-grade interlock tiles and lined with misting fan corridors to moderate the temperature and enhance comfort.
