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Scotsman
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
How Pope Francis wanted to visit Scotland and its islands
Professor Mario Aguilar from the University of St Andrews met Pope Francis more than 200 times Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A Scottish university professor who met the Pope more than 200 times recalls how the pontiff wanted to visit Scotland, but was unable to do so due to bureaucracy and security concerns. Professor Mario Aguilar, from the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, said Pope Francis had hoped to attend the signing of the St Andrews Declaration of a Shared Humanity in 2016 and had also voiced a private desire to visit some Scottish islands. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Pope Francis greets the crowd during a surprise appearance at the end of the mass for Palm Sunday at St Peter's square in the Vatican on April 13, 2025. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP) (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images) Organisers of the declaration event spoke to the Scottish Government and Catholic officials in Scotland. However, the visit never took place. Prof Aguilar, author of a 2014 biography titled, Pope Francis: His Life and Thought, had known the Pope since his days as a priest and bishop in his native Argentina. Known as Father Jorge Bergoglio before he was elected as Pope in 2013, Prof Aguilar recalled a 'smiling, fun, merciful' man who enjoyed Argentinian food and wine. '[The Papal visit] did not happen because everybody was worried it had not been cleared,' Prof Aguilar said. 'Francis said to me of the signing of the declaration, simply 'I could go for a short while, let me arrange to arrive there and come back - on a private visit'.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'But people are a bit complicated at times. Of course we have dangers in the world. But Francis wanted to go to more places. He simply wanted to say 'this is the private Jorge Bergoglio who wants to come to St Andrews'. But in the end it didn't work. 'With state visits, the question is, always, who has cleared this? Pope Francis wanted to be here in the morning of that day and wanted to just arrive in Edinburgh, go to St Andrews, be at the signing of the declaration, have lunch with other religious leaders and return. 'And we all found that it was more difficult to do that than actually have a state visit. That gave the impression then that the Pope was not welcome in Scotland.' Pope Francis He recalled a conversation with the pontiff about a possible trip to some Scottish islands. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Prof Aguilar said: 'He was always very curious about Scotland and wanted to visit Scotland. He said to me 'I want to go to the islands', and I said 'Fine, we can get a boat from Oban.' But it wasn't possible. I never understood why other world leaders can go on holiday, but it was too difficult for Pope Francis to take a personal trip.' He added: 'He enjoyed those moments [of informality] because he never understood why people could not treat other people as equal.' Prof Aguilar remembered meetings over espresso with Pope Francis, discussing ecclesiastical issues - and the Pope's favourite football team, Buenos-Aires based San Lorenzo. 'He was merciful,' he said. 'Jolly. He liked to smile. And as a good Argentinian, he wanted to eat and he liked Argentinian wine. Several times I went with him for a cup of coffee and so on.
Buzz Feed
20-03-2025
- Health
- Buzz Feed
Here Are Super Common Foods That Can Be Especially Dangerous To Eat If You Leave Them Out Too Long
Most of us have come home from a restaurant and dropped our neatly packaged leftovers on the counter before getting distracted by our dog or kid or an episode of Abbot Elementary. Before we know it, it's bedtime and that half-serving of pad thai has been sitting out for who knows how long. We desperately want to eat it for lunch tomorrow, but if we do, will we end up the victim of an unfortunate gastric episode — or even worse? That's what we aimed to find out when we — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, the co-hosts of HuffPost's 'Am I Doing It Wrong?' podcast — recently chatted with Kristen Aiken, HuffPost's executive director of Life and Commerce. During our 45 minutes together, Aiken, a culinary school grad and passionate food safety aficionado, gave us tips on how to spare our stomachs (and other delicate body parts) from the nightmarish repercussions of spoiled food. The most shocking thing we learned was that some unexpected foods are especially dangerous when left out — and consuming them has even led to death. '[The name for this] is 'Fried Rice Syndrome' colloquially, but it really applies to [almost all] pastas and rices,' Aiken told us before reading from a case report about a young Belgian man who died after consuming spaghetti with red sauce that had been left on his counter at room temperature for five days. An autopsy revealed that there were high levels of bacillus cereus present in his body. 'It's a pretty common bacteria that's found in most foods, and it doesn't make most of us sick most of the time,' Aiken explained. 'It's bacteria that starts as a spore that's inactive. Once you heat it during the initial cooking, it can become activated and release toxins. And the longer the food is left out at room temperature, the more the bacteria multiplies.' Bacillus cereus spores are most commonly associated with rice and pasta, but they can also be found in meat and cheese. They are especially risky because they are resistant to heat (they ' can only be eliminated by high-temperature treatment, say 121°C for 3 minutes '), and the toxins they produce cannot be destroyed with heat. Death from eating starchy foods left out at room temperature is rare (and other health factors may have been at play in the case of the Belgian man who died), but it can happen. It's more likely that eating improperly stored food will cause classic food poisoning symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea that should clear up within a few days. This is why Aiken recommends putting your leftover rice and pasta — and all other foods — in the refrigerator or freezer as quickly as possible to avoid any potential issues. 'The rule you will hear me say a million times over ... there's this temperature danger zone between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees Fahrenheit where you really shouldn't leave your food in that range for more than two hours because that's when the bacteria start to multiply,' Aiken said. If something has been out for longer than two hours, you should consider throwing it away. In this episode, we also chatted with her about whether or not ketchup and other condiments really need to go in the fridge, foods that will stay good indefinitely, and much more. Listen to it here. After you've had a listen above, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe to 'Am I Doing It Wrong?' so you don't miss a single episode, including our investigations of how to improve our gut health, secrets for better teeth from a celebrity dentist, how to score the best deals on airline tickets, how to poop like a pro, apologizing, vanquishing your credit card debt, finding love online, overcoming anxiety, making a big life change and getting a tattoo.
