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The Hindu
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
What Two Popes reveals about the lost dialogue in Indian academia
Robert Francis Prevost became the first pope from the United States on Thursday (May 8, 2025), picking the papal name Leo XIV after cardinals from around the world elected him as the 267th pope of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. This was following Pope Francis' death on April 21. After decades of conservative leadership of the Roman Catholic Church that culminated in the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the church, had sought to promote inclusion and care for the marginalised over doctrinal purity. Against this backdrop, I watched the movie The Two Popes (2019) on OTT. Taking us behind the Vatican walls, the movie rewinds to the final days of Pope Benedict XVI, where the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church. Inspired by true events, the movie shows a fictitious dialogue between the two popes. Though their views are poles apart, there is space for an open dialogue. After the Vatican leaks scandal marred the Catholic Church in controversy, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (later known as Pope Francis) submitted his resignation as the Archbishop. Bergoglio, who was also in line to become Pope, had received the second-highest votes after Pope Benedict. Perceiving Bergoglio's resignation as a threat to the Church, Pope Benedict invites him to the Palace of Castel Gandolfo. At the castle, the two popes converse about homosexuality, communion of the divorced, and more. 'You have been one of my harshest critics, there's a lot of competition for that title', Pope Benedict says to Bergoglio, as their views never align. Pope Benedict asks Bergoglio about him openly giving sacraments to those who are out of communion, to the divorced. Bergoglio says, 'Oh, I believe giving communion is not a reward for the virtuous, it is food for the starving'. Pope Benedict then questions him, whether his personal beliefs matter more than what the Church has taught for hundreds of years. To that, Bergoglio cites scriptures, 'I came to all sinners'. They have a back and forth on the idea of mercy. Bergoglio has the final word: 'Mercy is dynamite that blows down walls.' Instead of taking offence, Pope Benedict says, 'You have an answer for everything… you are far too clever'. In many scenes such as these, the movie showed these two religious leaders with opposing views navigating each other's thoughts, even though they fundamentally disagreed with each other. They were listening, challenging, reflecting, and even becoming friends as a consequence of the dialogue, apparently. Dialogue in Indian academia Dialogue has now become a rarity in the Indian context, even in universities and academia. Universities are supposed to be spaces that foster critical thinking, where ideas should clash and grow, where students and teachers question and disagree, but still talk and learn. Far from this ideal picture, there has been a lot of talk about the loss of academic freedom in India. Over the past 10 years, India has plummeted on the academic freedom index ranks, according to the 'Free to Think 2024' annual report published by the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. According to the Academic Freedom Index, India now ranks as 'completely restricted', its lowest score since the mid-1940s. The Supreme Court on May 2, 2025, allowed a Dalit Ph.D. scholar and Left student leader Ramadas K.S. to be reinstated in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) while reducing his two-year suspension for allegedly indulging in activities which were 'not in the interest of the nation'. In a notice that was sent to Mr. Ramdas dated March 7, TISS referred to his role in screening the documentary 'Ram Ke Naam' on January 26 as a 'mark of dishonour and protest' against the Ram Mandir idol consecration in Ayodhya. In another instance, Vikrant Singh, a Ph.D. student who had received a termination letter from IIT Guwahati, was reinstated in the institute after the Gauhati High Court stated that the institute had unjustly handled Mr. Singh's case. The institute alleged that Mr. Singh had been stirring up controversies and trouble in IIT Guwahati, since the time he joined. The court said that Mr. Singh was not given a proper hearing, and the institute didn't share with him the documents of allegations against him; hence, principles of natural justice were ignored. The courts reinstating students like Mr. Ramdas and Mr. Singh is welcome. It would, however, be ideal if universities set the precedence by creating spaces where students can hold a dialogue with the administration, faculty and among themselves without rancour.
New York Post
09-05-2025
- New York Post
Before Pope Francis died, this is where he directed his remaining money to go
The late Pope Francis donated all his remaining money to a youth rehabilitation project inside a Roman prison in one of his final acts as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Before his death last month, Francis withdrew all the money from his personal bank account to support a pasta factory that employs current and former inmates from the Casal del Marmo detention center, according to several reports. Advertisement The factory is called Pastificio Futuro, and it was developed 'from the desire to transform hope in the future,' according to its website. The project was started by Gustolibero Onlus, a social cooperative, to answer Pope Francis's call to people: 'Don't let yourselves be robbed of hope,' according to the website. Francis died of a stroke and cardiac arrest at 88 on Easter Monday. Before his death, Francis was battling double pneumonia after a series of health challenges in recent years. Advertisement During his time as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis focused heavily on helping imprisoned inmates. 3 In one of his final acts as head of the Roman Catholic Church, the late Pope Francis donated his remaining assets to a youth rehabilitation project inside a Roman prison. REUTERS According to the Vatican News, Francis has also called on society to create more compassion and respect for such individuals and to view them as those individuals capable of transformation. Toward the end of his life, he continued efforts to help and uplift those who were incarcerated, including the opening of a Holy Door at the Rebibbia prison, which is an Italian prison intended for rehabilitation and social reintegration of inmates, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Advertisement Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 to Italian immigrant parents in Argentina, Francis made history as the first pope from the Americas, as well as the first Jesuit to hold the position. He was elected pope in 2013 after the unprecedented retirement of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. He entered the priesthood at the Diocesan Seminary of Villa Devoto in Argentina. 3 Francis withdrew all of the money he had from his bank account and gave it to Pastificio Futuro, a pasta factory which was developed 'from the desire to transform hope in the future,' according to its website. AP Advertisement Francis was ordained a priest in 1969 and made his final profession with the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, in 1973. The same year, he was appointed as a provincial for the order. In 1992, Pope John Paul II appointed Bergoglio as titular Bishop of Auca and as an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. This was done at the request of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, archbishop of Buenos Aires, who consecrated him to the episcopacy. Bergoglio proved vital to the nation's Catholic community, and he was quickly raised to the dignity of coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving alongside Quarracino and taking over the archdiocese in its entirety after Quarracino's death the following year. 3 Francis died at the age of 88 from a stroke and cardiac arrest. AFP via Getty Images Bergoglio was given the crimson hat of a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Advertisement In 2013, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Bergoglio was elected to the papacy, selecting the pontifical name 'Francis' after St. Francis of Assisi, a choice that set the tone for the rest of his papacy. Fox News' Caitlin McFall, Emma Colton and Chris Massaro contributed to this report.
Hindustan Times
08-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Who is the new Pope and what does Habemus Papam mean? White smoke seen in Vatican
White smoke was seen rising from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican, indicating that cardinals have elected a new pope on the second and final day of conclave. This comes days after Pope Francis' death. What does Habemus Papam mean? "Habemus Papam" is Latin for "We have a Pope." It is the traditional announcement made in Latin by the senior cardinal deacon from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City to proclaim the election of a new pope following a papal conclave. The phrase introduces the newly elected pontiff, including his chosen papal name, to the public. For example, after Jorge Mario Bergoglio's election in 2013, the announcement was: 'Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam! Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Georgium Marium, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Bergoglio, qui sibi nomen imposuit Franciscum' ('I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope! The most eminent and most reverend Lord, Lord Jorge Mario, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Bergoglio, who has taken for himself the name Francis'). Who is the new Pope? The identity of the new Pope has not been revealed yet. Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin appeared as the front runner. Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle appeared as the second favorite.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The next Pope? You wouldn't know him.
'We're about to choose the most famous man in the world,' Ralph Fiennes' character tells a fellow cardinal in the movie "Conclave." That is not how I would define the role of the cardinals now gathering in Rome for a real-life papal conclave, but it's accurate enough: Pope Francis very likely was the world's most famous man at the time of his death April 21. But before March 13, 2013, he was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, and unless you worked in Vatican City or lived in Buenos Aires, there's a good chance you had never heard of him. It is wise to keep that in mind as the world anticipates the election of Francis' successor. The next pope might be a household name by the end of May. In Vatican City, he is almost certainly well-known already — Hollywood intrigue aside, no secret cardinals will grab the spotlight in Rome. The cardinals will vote for someone they know and trust. But when they do, the rest of us, even the pundits making their short lists, are liable to hear the name announced from the balcony of St. Peter's and say, 'Who?' In 2013, I had an assignment to write a quick reaction piece as soon as the new pope was announced. I read a lot of experts' lists and rankings of all the front-runners, just as many are doing now. It did me no good: I heard 'Bergoglio' and had to start my research from scratch ('He's a Jesuit? That can't be right!'). Watch the video of that announcement and you can hear the same reaction from the masses assembled in St. Peter's Square when they hear the name 'Bergoglio.' They respond not with a roar of recognition, as they did when Benedict XVI was elected ('Ratzinger' being a familiar name), but with an excited rumble of consternation, more like when Karol Wojtyla, better known as John Paul II, was announced in 1978. It's the sound of every person turning to their neighbor and saying, 'Who?' The tools we use to handicap an election in the United States aren't much good at forecasting popes. For one thing, the American view of 'liberal' and 'conservative' — already an awkward fit for American Catholics — is a truly inadequate framework for understanding the priorities and divisions of the Catholic hierarchy in the Vatican. And for those hoping for the first American pontiff, think of the view from Rome: if you were choosing someone to run a global organization headquartered in Europe in 2025, would you want to put an American in charge? Although the College of Cardinals isn't above politicking, the campaigning will happen where the rest of us can't see it. That's where the horse race analysis really fails us: there's no base of voters, no constituents to win over, outside the college itself. And the cardinals whom ordinary people want to talk about — the high-profile ones, the reactionary ones, the ones with a whiff of scandal — are, for that very reason, unlikely to be trusted by a supermajority of their colleagues. Catholics believe the Holy Spirit has a role to play in guiding the cardinal electors. The workings of the Holy Spirit have produced one surprise after another, including three non-Italian popes in a row, when even one seemed unimaginable until 1978. Now, it's hard to say what a 'predictable' choice looks like, and the possibilities are more diverse than ever. One of the pope's most important responsibilities is deciding which men (and, even now, it's nearly always men) to put in positions of power. Francis took that responsibility seriously, and the cardinals he appointed are not reactionaries or provocateurs. The bishops he elevated to the role of cardinal are men after his own heart, committed to reaching out to the margins (many of them represent dioceses that were not traditionally honored with the 'red hat' of a cardinal) and supportive of the slow, collaborative decision-making process that the Church calls 'synodality.' And they are like him in another way: if you're not a Vatican-watcher, there's no reason you would have heard of them. In the end, that may be the most interesting fact about the next pope — how little any of us know or can predict about what will happen next. We should prepare to be surprised, not only by the name announced from the balcony, but also by who that man decides to be once he dons the white cassock, and where he will take the church between now and the next time a conclave gathers. This article was originally published on
Otago Daily Times
27-04-2025
- Otago Daily Times
The puzzle of a revered pope's history
A man places an image of the late Pope Francis in a memorial outside the Buenos Aires' Metropolitan Cathedral. PHOTO: REUTERS Not being a believer myself, I take only a limited interest in the doings of priests, imams and rabbis, but I did stumble into a situation involving the late Pope Francis at a crucial point in his early career. This is probably the last time that the story will be of interest, so I might as well tell it now. It was 1977, I was brand new to the trade of freelance journalism, and I had just sold a radio series that would focus on reformers, radicals and troublemakers in the Catholic Church. I made a deal with the Jesuit mother-house in Rome to use Jesuit contacts around the world as my way in (they were dabbling in "liberation theology" at the time, so out of favour in the Vatican), and in due course I found myself in Buenos Aires. The head Jesuit there was Fr Jorge Bergoglio (much later Pope Francis), whom I did not meet. I stayed with two younger Jesuits who were working in one of the city's poorest barrios and were definitely of the liberation theology persuasion. It was the earliest and worst days of Argentina's military dictatorship and everybody was scared. Military teams cruised through the streets in their trademark Ford Falcons, seizing people on their list for torture and subsequent murder, and my hosts were convinced that they were on one of those lists. They stayed at their posts, working with their poverty-stricken congregation, but they were sure the soldiers would soon come and take them. They knew that the church would not save them, because Bergoglio had handed two other left-wing Jesuits over to the military death squads just months before. Or at least that was what they believed. All the other young Jesuit priests I met believed it too, even though Bergoglio was the provincial (chief Jesuit) in Argentina. Several of them had seen him meeting senior military officers in his offices, but they did not know what was said. He moved in the same social circles as military officers at that time, but that does not necessarily mean he gave up his priests to the regime. In due course Bergoglio became a pope, and there will never be a definitive answer to the question: did he or did he not? If there ever were any documents, they will have been destroyed long ago by the military, the church, or both. But why, knowing that there was this problematic element in his past, did the church make him pope? With at least 100-plus cardinals young enough to vote (the over-80s c cannot), surely they could have found somebody with a little less baggage. In fact, even if they rightly thought that it was long past time for the first Latin American pope, why on Earth choose Argentina? The Argentine Catholic Church's behaviour during the time of the generals was so craven, so shameful that it made a public apology in 2000 for its failure to make a stand. "We want to confess before God everything we have done badly," Argentina's Episcopal Conference said. So why not a pope from Brazil, or Colombia, or even Cuba, where the church is under siege? Perhaps because there are never really all that many "papabile" (men who are plausible contenders for the papacy). There is a short-list of 10 at most who represent (or more accurately, seem to embody) the divergent strands of conservatism and liberalism in matters both secular and doctrinal. What happens in a papal conclave remains secret, but the struggle to choose the "right" pope is usually hard-fought and its outcome is significant for the church's future, possibly over a period of decades. Maybe Pope Francis was just the least unacceptable compromise, and the cardinals decided that the future was more important than the past? Anyway, he has gone now, and we have a last chance to question the choices made by that previous incarnation of Francis when he was 50 years younger. The likeliest explanation for Bergoglio's conduct, if it was less than perfect, is that he saved people when he could, but let others go because the military were determined to have them. He made deals, in other words. That is the calculation that most people with responsibility for the lives of others tend to make in evil times. Rodolfo Yorio, brother of one of the Jesuits who was kidnapped and tortured, summed it up this way: "I know people whom he (Bergoglio/Francis) helped. That shows his two faces and his closeness to the military authorities. His way of managing ambiguity is masterly. If they were killed he was rid of them, if they were saved he was the one who had saved them. That's why there are people who consider him a saint and others who are terrified of him." Well, no longer. • Gwynne Dyer is an independent London journalist.
