Core and periphery: Pope Francis and Asia
Laid to rest yesterday in an unadorned coffin marked simply with Franciscus, the decision to be buried outside the walls of the Vatican is both symbolic and substantive.
In the 12 years he led the Catholic church, Pope Francis' vista was broad. His outreach to those on the margins is inclusive.
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The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Pope Leo to visit Lebanon, cardinal says, in likely first trip abroad
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, August 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/File VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo plans to visit Lebanon, the country's senior Catholic official announced on Wednesday, in what could be the first visit outside Italy by the new leader of the global Church. The pope will travel to Lebanon "by December", Cardinal Bechara Rai told the al-Arabiya television channel. Rai, leader of the 3.5-million-member Maronite Catholic Church, did not give a specific date for the visit but said "preparations are already underway". A Lebanese official familiar with the matter confirmed that discussions were being held about a visit towards the end of the year, though a date had not yet been finalised. Leo, the first U.S. pope, was elected by the world's Catholic cardinals on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis, who had planned to visit Lebanon but was unable to go because of health issues. Lebanon is home to more than two million Catholics, according to Vatican statistics. A Vatican spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Rai's remarks. A Vatican official, who asked not to be named, confirmed that a trip was being planned and said it could be part of a tour that would also include Turkey. Travelling abroad has become a major part of the modern papacy, with popes seeking to meet local Catholics, spread the faith, and conduct international diplomacy. They often draw crowds in the millions. Francis made 47 visits abroad during his 12-year papacy, travelling to 68 countries. He made a policy of visiting countries that often did not draw international attention as a way of highlighting problems in what he called the "peripheries" of the world. Leo has been expected to visit Turkey in late November as part of celebrations for the 1,700th anniversary of a major early Church council, which took place in Nicaea, now called Iznik. In a message to Lebanon earlier this month, Leo commemorated the fifth anniversary of a huge chemical explosion at the Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. "Beloved and suffering Lebanon remains at the centre of our prayers," said the pope. (Reporting by Joshua McElwee;Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily in BeirutEditing by Helen Popper)
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Angola civic groups urge Argentina and Messi to cancel football friendly
ANGOLAN civil society groups have urged the Argentine football federation and star player Lionel Messi to cancel a planned friendly match following violent protests that killed thirty people. The football associations of both countries have been negotiating a match date in Luanda as part of Angola's fiftieth independence anniversary celebrations in November. Four civil society organisations accused Angolan authorities of 'systematic repression' in an open letter addressed to the Argentine Football Association, the national team and Lionel Messi Foundation charity. Refusing to participate in the planned match 'would be a noble gesture of international solidarity and respect for human rights,' said the groups, which include Catholic, legal and pro-democracy organisations. Angola ranks among Africa's leading oil producers yet approximately one third of its nearly thirty eight million population lives in poverty according to World Bank data. Late July protests against fuel price increases turned violent when people looted shops, triggering a police response involving live ammunition. At least thirty people died, more than two hundred seventy sustained injuries and around one thousand five hundred fifteen faced arrest during the worst unrest in decades for this southern African nation. 'While public resources are being channelled to large-scale sporting events, thousands of children and adults face chronic hunger, severe anaemia, and widespread food insecurity,' the letter said. The groups referenced a 2025 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report indicating 22.5% of Angola's population suffers from undernourishment. They stated that only a select few benefit from business opportunities in Angola, with most being associated with the MPLA party that has held power since independence from Portugal in 1975. – AFP
The Star
5 days ago
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Pope Leo's ‘calming' start
WHEN Pope Leo XIV surprised tens of thousands of young people at a recent Holy Year celebration with an impromptu popemobile romp around St Peter's Square, it almost seemed as if some of the informal spontaneity that characterised Pope Francis' 12-year papacy had returned to the Vatican. But the message Leo delivered that night was all his own. In seamless English, Spanish and Italian, Leo told the young people that they were the 'salt of the Earth, the light of the world'. He urged them to spread their hope, faith in Christ and cries of peace wherever they go. As Robert Prevost marked his 100th day as Pope Leo at Vatican City yesterday, the contours of his pontificate have begun to come into relief, primarily where he shows continuity with Francis and where he signals change. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that after 12 sometimes turbulent years under Francis, a certain calm and reserve have returned to the papacy. That seems exactly what many Catholic faithful want, and may respond to what today's church needs. 'He's been very direct and forthright, but he's not doing spontaneous press hits,' said Kevin Hughes, chair of theology and religious studies at Leo's alma mater, Villanova University. Leo has a different style compared to Francis, and that has brought relief to many, Hughes said in a telephone interview. 'Even those who really loved Pope Francis always kind of held their breath a little bit; you didn't know what was going to come out next or what he was going to do,' he added. Leo has certainly gone out of his way in his first 100 days to try to heal divisions that deepened during Francis' pontificate, offering messages of unity and avoiding controversy at almost every turn. Even his signature issue – confronting the promise and peril posed by artificial intelligence – is something that conservatives and progressives alike agree is important. Francis' emphasis on caring for the environment and migrants often alienated conservatives. Leo, though, has cemented Francis' environmental legacy by celebrating the first-ever ecologically-inspired Mass. He has furthered that legacy by giving the go-ahead for the Vatican to turn a 430ha field north of Rome into a vast solar farm that should generate enough electricity to meet Vatican City's needs and turn it into the world's first carbon-neutral state. But he hasn't granted any sit-down, tell-all interviews or made headline-grabbing, off-the-cuff comments like his predecessor did. He hasn't made any major appointments, including to fill his old job, or taken any big trips. In marking the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki last week, he had a chance to match Francis' novel declaration that the mere possession of nuclear weapons was 'immoral'. But he didn't. Compared to President Donald Trump, the other American world leader who took office in 2025 with a flurry of Sharpie-penned executive decrees, Leo has eased into his new job slowly, deliberately and quietly, almost trying not to draw attention to himself. At 69, he seems to know that he has time on his side, and that after Francis' revolutionary papacy, the church might need a bit of a breather. One Vatican official who knows Leo said he expects his papacy will have the effect of a 'calming rain' on the church. But Leo is also very much a product of the Francis papacy. Francis named Prevost bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014 and then moved him to head one of the most important Vatican jobs in 2023 – vetting bishop nominations. In retrospect, it seems as if Francis had had his eye on Prevost as a possible successor. Given Francis' stump speech before the 2013 conclave that elected him pope, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio essentially described Prevost in identifying the church's mission today. He said the church was 'called to go outside of itself and go to the peripheries, not just geographic but also the existential peripheries'. Prevost, who hails from Chicago, spent his adult life as a missionary in Peru, eventually becoming bishop of Chiclayo. Emilce Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, said during a recent conference hosted by Georgetown University that Leo encapsulated in 'word and gesture' the type of missionary church Francis promoted. — AP
