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Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘He's the right guy,' says Holland man who went to school with pope
HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — The fields surrounding the Felt Mansion once stood the halls of St. Augustine Seminary High School. It would be these grounds where Pope Leo XIV would forge the building blocks that would take him to the Vatican. Former classmate Dan King remembers those same buildings. 'They were just raising good, intelligent, productive males for society,' he said. King attended the school as a high school freshman from Dalton, Illinois, in 1969, just blocks away from a young Robert Prevost. It was a challenging yet worthwhile experience for King. New pope attended Catholic high school in West Michigan 'Everything was scheduled and a lot of prayer, a lot of mass, every day education and you had to do physical work and all the rest of that kind of stuff. It was competitive grades,' King said. 'You had to really, you know, do your work. And it was tough. So, the people were not making it for that reason. Or they left because they said they didn't have the calling anymore, right? They didn't feel like they wanted to go to the seminary anymore.' His class of 50 students would graduate as a group of 10, something common for the school. While the work was competitive, King said it prepared him for life. It also prepared him in being part of the steering committee creating Corpus Christi Catholic School in Holland, where King serves as a Board of Education member. 'They were just raising good, intelligent, productive males for society,' he said. King remembers Prevost arriving at the school during his sophomore year. 'Down the hallway, I remember some guys, they were two other kids in my class. They came running down the hallway and they said, 'Dan, Dan, guess what?' And I said, 'What?' 'We just met somebody who's smarter than you.' And I'm like, 'Really?' And I went down to meet him. And I walked away from it saying, 'I think he's smarter than me,'' he said. Yearbook pages are filled with photos of King and Prevost. In one, the young teens gather around a table as part of the club that published the 'Encounter,' the seminary's yearbook. In another, the two stand in a group as part of the National Honor Society chapter. In another photo, Prevost is seen playing tennis. Pope's brother answers burning local question: Chicago White Sox or Cubs fan? King said Prevost was dedicated to the competitive academics of the seminary. 'I remember him being, he was very humble, very, very humble, very quiet. But he was really nice, and I think 'That guy's going to, he's going to go someplace,'' he said. King couldn't guess that one of those places would be as the head of the catholic church. He said his wife was anxiously waiting for the announcement, as white smoke billowed out of the Sistine Chapel, signifying that a pope had been elected. 'She's hoping it's going to be, she knows, she feels. 'I hope it's Bob, I hope it's Bob' And I'm thinking, well, that would be nice, and she says 'No, I feel it.'' Robert Prevost becomes first American pope of the Catholic Church: What to know There's still some shock as he remembers Thursday's announcement. 'It's just an amazing, amazing that I would know a pope. You know, that I would have even gone to school with a pope. You know, a normal guy, grows up a normal kid just doing normal kid stuff, and he's now in charge of what, 1.8 billion Catholics,' he said. Looking back at Prevost's volunteer work around Holland, Douglas and the lakeshore to the years of mission work in Peru, King said the new pope will guide the church through shifting waters. 'I think he's going to be a good guy for it. He's the right guy. I can tell. When I saw him walk out of the balcony, he was about to cry,' he said. King hopes telling his stories and experiences with Pope Leo will inspire the next generation of Catholics by showing the highs a person can reach from humble beginnings Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
04-03-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Pope Francis resting after acute breathing crises forced him to resume noninvasive ventilation
The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation: a mask that covers his nose and mouth and pumps oxygen into the lungs. Advertisement Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel, the Vatican said. The prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was not out of danger. Doctors didn't say if he remained in stable condition, though they referred to the crises in the past tense, suggesting they were over. The crises were a new setback in what has become a more than two-week battle by the frail pope to overcome a complex respiratory infection. The Vatican said the mucus that had accumulated in Francis' lungs was his body's reaction to the original pneumonia infection and not a new infection, given laboratory tests don't indicate any new bacteria. Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episodes were more concerning than the l ast one on Friday, in which Francis had a coughing fit, inhaled some vomit that needed to be extracted and then was put on the noninvasive mechanical ventilation for a day and then didn't need it anymore. The use of bronchoscopies reflects a worrying level of mucus and phlegm in the lungs, Coleman said. 'The fact that they had to go in there and remove it manually is concerning, because it means that he is not clearing the secretions on his own,' he said. 'He's taking little steps forward and then steps back,' said Coleman, who is not involved in Francis' care. Advertisement Francis, who is not physically active, uses a wheelchair and is overweight, had been undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to try to improve his lung function. But the accumulation of the secretions in his lungs was a sign that he doesn't have the muscle tone to cough vigorously enough to expel the fluid. Doctors often use noninvasive ventilation to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It's not clear if he has provided any advance directives about the limits of his care if he declines or loses consciousness. Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive 'ordinary' care such as hydration and nutrition, but 'extraordinary' or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life. Francis articulated that in a 2017 speech to a meeting of the Vatican's bioethics think tank, the Pontifical Academy for Life. He said there was 'no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy.' He added: 'It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of 'overzealous treatment.'' Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the academy which helps articulate the Catholic Church's position on end-of-life care, said Francis is like any other Catholic and would follow church teaching if it came to that. 'Today the pope is giving us an extraordinary teaching on fragility,' he told reporters Monday. 'Today the pope, not through words but with his body, is reminding all of us, we elderly people to begin with, that we are all fragile and therefore we need to take care of each other.' Advertisement Francis' hospitalization, which hits 18 nights Tuesday, is by no means reaching the papal record that was set during St. John Paul II's numerous lengthy hospitalizations over a quarter century. The longest single hospitalization occurred in 1981, when John Paul spent 55 days in Gemelli for a minor operation and then to be treated for a serious infection that followed.
