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Hindustan Times
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Conclave to pick new pope begins on May 7. But who are the antipopes?
The Papal Conclave 2025 will start on Wednesday, May 7, with a A total of 133 cardinals from different countries meeting inside the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City to choose the next pope, successor of Pope Francis who died on April 21. Antipope caused a lot of confusion because of which Church was split for almost 40 years(REUTERS) As the Catholic Church prepares to elect its 267th pope, global attention is fixed on the Vatican. From speculation over frontrunners and betting odds to curiosity about the secretive voting process, the world is watching closely. Amid the anticipation, one question is also resurfacing: Who exactly are the antipopes? Who are antipopes? An antipope is a person who makes a competing claim to the papacy, in opposition to the legitimately elected pope. This typically occurs during times of political or doctrinal conflict within the Church, and the antipope is not recognised as the true pope by the wider Catholic Church. Also Read: What was Pope Francis' final wish? Here's how late pontiff's popemobile will help children in Gaza Between 1378 and 1417, the Catholic Church witnessed a period of Western Schism also known as the Papal Schism or Great Western Schism. This was time period where multiple individuals simultaneously claimed to be the legitimate pope. The Schism also saw the emergence of rival claimants (antipope), which created serious political and spiritual splits in the Church. Antipope caused a lot of confusion because of which Church was split for almost 40 years. However, The schism was ultimately resolved by the Council of Constance in 1417, which led to the election of Martin V, a universally accepted pontiff, as reported by Pique. Well known- antipopes Some well-known antipopes were Clement VII, Benedict XIII, Alexander V, and John XXIII. Also Read: No phone signals, jammers, lockdown: Vatican's world to seal for Conclave to elect pope As the new conclave begins, the idea of antipopes reminds us that choosing a pope has not always been simple. Sometimes, it led to long and serious arguments in the Church.
The Hindu
21-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Jerry Pinto reviews Hope: The Autobiography by Pope Francis
I heard the news at a working lunch. Pope Francis was gone and I felt a deep sorrow open up within me. It was like losing a... like losing a what? Not a friend but also a friend. A symbol of possibility and a harbinger of change. I do not ask for whom the bell tolls. I know it tolls for all liberal human beings. It has been a long time since we loved a Pope so much. Change in the air Towards the end of the John Paul II papacy, it became apparent that the Supreme Pontiff was no longer running the church; a cabal was doing its best to make the 2,000-year-old institution into a meaningless anachronism in a world in flux. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed as Bishop of Rome and the decline accelerated as the Holy Father wrote flawed encyclicals, ignored the savagery visited on children and pottered about changing formulae for the Mass, indulging in sophistry while the world was burning around his German ears. I talked to a priest friend who said grimly, 'Well, at least there's only one of him,' referring to the Great Western Schism when there were three men who were claiming the Seat of St. Peter. We fell in love with the Papacy again when white smoke streamed out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and Cardinal Bergoglio was elected. Here was a Jesuit as a Pope which accounts for much of the change in the way his time in Rome has been conducted. The Jesuits may be the intellectual elites of the church but there has been an amazing lack of sophistry about this Pope who named himself after the simplest and most childlike of saints, Francis of Assisi. Feeling the pain He is the People's Pope in much the same way as Diana, Princess of Wales, was the People's Princess. He knows the value of the gesture. He knows what it means to the faithful that he is 'still in touch' with the many people whom he met as a priest, a bishop, a cardinal; that phrase runs like a leit motif through the book although, in the manner of the great Augustinian Confessions, he is at pains to recount the times he held himself aloof and lived to regret it. But most of all, he understands the rage and the horror that the church's protection of paedophiles has generated. He is unstinting in his condemnation in Hope: The Autobiography, cowritten with Carlo Musso and translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon: 'The pain of the victims is a lament that rises to heaven, that touches the soul, and which for so long has been ignored, hidden or silenced. In the justified anger of the people, the Church sees the reflection of God's anger, betrayed and besmirched by these dishonest priests.' This is a preachment from a Pope and Franciscus does not wait until he has been ordained before he begins. We are treated to small sermons in retrospect as we follow his life but this is as it should be. For if you are going to read a book by a man who managed to get past the traditional dislike that Rome has for Jesuits — the order has been suppressed twice by the very men to whom they swear allegiance in what can only be an example of fine Italian irony — and the presence of an ex-Pope still hanging about Vatican City like a bad odour, you must gird your loins for this. Act of faith But he surprises you. How he surprises you. That he should make a postcard of 'The Standing Boy of Nagasaki' — a photograph of a little boy of about 10 years old who has the corpse of his dead brother strapped to his back — which he has titled, 'The Fruit of War' is remarkable. That he should beg at the feet of the leaders of South Sudan to end the war may be taken as a gesture but it is a gesture that few heads of state would make. That he should weigh in on climate change, that he should tell us that he read Communist literature when he was growing up, that he should refer to Ingmar Bergman and Giovanni Guareschi (on whose Don Camillo series I cut my teeth), that he once helped Jorge Luis Borges shave… all these stretch what you expect of a Papal autobiography. He made me weep. On page 165, he offers us his own credo. It is so beautiful because it is so honest. I would love to reproduce the whole here but space does not permit and so just the first few words: 'I want to believe in God the Father, who loves me as a son, and in Jesus…' It's that 'want to believe' that totally disarmed me, an echo of the father of the ill child in Mark's gospel who cried out: 'Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief'. It reminded me of the time that a big noise was made about Mother Teresa's — I know she is a saint, but as Pope Francis pointed out at her canonisation, she seems so much more a mother than a saint — long dark night of the soul. Only the irreligious can think of faith as a single calm note; for it is a chorus of voices, some from Heaven, some from the Earth and some from The Other Place, all originating within us. That the Pope himself wants to believe, that he will stand vulnerable before his readers admitting to it, is a great act of faith. As he says, quoting Father Zaragiozi, the future depends on the capacity to listen. Another lovely line: We cannot love people with weapons in our hands. No, we cannot. But is anyone listening? The reviewer lives in Bombay and thinks that the Church could learn a lot from Jesus Christ if it wanted to. Hope Pope Francis, with Carlo Musso, trs Richard Dixon Penguin Random House India ₹ 1,099
The Hindu
21-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Review of Hope: The Autobiography by Pope Francis
I heard the news at a working lunch. Pope Francis was gone and I felt a deep sorrow open up within me. It was like losing a... like losing a what? Not a friend but also a friend. A symbol of possibility and a harbinger of change. I do not ask for whom the bell tolls. I know it tolls for all liberal human beings. It has been a long time since we loved a Pope so much. Change in the air Towards the end of the John Paul II papacy, it became apparent that the Supreme Pontiff was no longer running the church; a cabal was doing its best to make the 2,000-year-old institution into a meaningless anachronism in a world in flux. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed as Bishop of Rome and the decline accelerated as the Holy Father wrote flawed encyclicals, ignored the savagery visited on children and pottered about changing formulae for the Mass, indulging in sophistry while the world was burning around his German ears. I talked to a priest friend who said grimly, 'Well, at least there's only one of him,' referring to the Great Western Schism when there were three men who were claiming the Seat of St. Peter. We fell in love with the Papacy again when white smoke streamed out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and Cardinal Bergoglio was elected. Here was a Jesuit as a Pope which accounts for much of the change in the way his time in Rome has been conducted. The Jesuits may be the intellectual elites of the church but there has been an amazing lack of sophistry about this Pope who named himself after the simplest and most childlike of saints, Francis of Assisi. Feeling the pain He is the People's Pope in much the same way as Diana, Princess of Wales, was the People's Princess. He knows the value of the gesture. He knows what it means to the faithful that he is 'still in touch' with the many people whom he met as a priest, a bishop, a cardinal; that phrase runs like a leit motif through the book although, in the manner of the great Augustinian Confessions, he is at pains to recount the times he held himself aloof and lived to regret it. But most of all, he understands the rage and the horror that the church's protection of paedophiles has generated. He is unstinting in his condemnation in Hope: The Autobiography, cowritten with Carlo Musso and translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon: 'The pain of the victims is a lament that rises to heaven, that touches the soul, and which for so long has been ignored, hidden or silenced. In the justified anger of the people, the Church sees the reflection of God's anger, betrayed and besmirched by these dishonest priests.' This is a preachment from a Pope and Franciscus does not wait until he has been ordained before he begins. We are treated to small sermons in retrospect as we follow his life but this is as it should be. For if you are going to read a book by a man who managed to get past the traditional dislike that Rome has for Jesuits — the order has been suppressed twice by the very men to whom they swear allegiance in what can only be an example of fine Italian irony — and the presence of an ex-Pope still hanging about Vatican City like a bad odour, you must gird your loins for this. Act of faith But he surprises you. How he surprises you. That he should make a postcard of 'The Standing Boy of Nagasaki' — a photograph of a little boy of about 10 years old who has the corpse of his dead brother strapped to his back — which he has titled, 'The Fruit of War' is remarkable. That he should beg at the feet of the leaders of South Sudan to end the war may be taken as a gesture but it is a gesture that few heads of state would make. That he should weigh in on climate change, that he should tell us that he read Communist literature when he was growing up, that he should refer to Ingmar Bergman and Giovanni Guareschi (on whose Don Camillo series I cut my teeth), that he once helped Jorge Luis Borges shave… all these stretch what you expect of a Papal autobiography. He made me weep. On page 165, he offers us his own credo. It is so beautiful because it is so honest. I would love to reproduce the whole here but space does not permit and so just the first few words: 'I want to believe in God the Father, who loves me as a son, and in Jesus…' It's that 'want to believe' that totally disarmed me, an echo of the father of the ill child in Mark's gospel who cried out: 'Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief'. It reminded me of the time that a big noise was made about Mother Teresa's — I know she is a saint, but as Pope Francis pointed out at her canonisation, she seems so much more a mother than a saint — long dark night of the soul. Only the irreligious can think of faith as a single calm note; for it is a chorus of voices, some from Heaven, some from the Earth and some from The Other Place, all originating within us. That the Pope himself wants to believe, that he will stand vulnerable before his readers admitting to it, is a great act of faith. As he says, quoting Father Zaragiozi, the future depends on the capacity to listen. Another lovely line: We cannot love people with weapons in our hands. No, we cannot. But is anyone listening? The reviewer lives in Bombay and thinks that the Church could learn a lot from Jesus Christ if it wanted to. Hope Pope Francis, with Carlo Musso, trs Richard Dixon Penguin Random House India ₹ 1,099
