Latest news with #MartyrsofOtranto
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
From Mother Teresa to the Martyrs of Otranto: People canonised by Pope Francis
The Pope can make decrees to honour Catholics to honour them in their death as saints. This act of publicly revering the person after death and entering their name in the canon catalogue is called canonisation. Pope Francis has canonised 911 saints in 68 causes, which includes the 813 Martyrs of Otranto as a group. Who are the Martyrs of Otranto? On May 12, 2013, Pope Francis announced the canonisation of Antonio Primaldo and his companions, better known as the 'Martyrs of Otranto' , who gained the term 'martyr' as they died at the hands of the Turkish invaders in 1480 for refusing to convert to Islam. A fleet of Ottoman Empire reached Otranto on June 28, 1480. The Italian coastal town, then under the king of Naples, had a little more than 800 inhabitants. With the commander fleeing, the inhabitants were left to defend themselves. They took shelter in the castle, which was eventually breached on August 12. It is said that the Turks urged the residents to convert to Islam, and since none agreed, they were all executed at the Colle della Minerva, now known as Martyrs' Hills. The names of the martyrs are unknown, except Antonio Primaldo, who is believed to be the first one to be beheaded. Though beatified by Clement XIV in 1771, it was Benedict XVI who officially proclaimed them martyrs for the faith. Who are some prominent Indians canonised by Pope Francis? Mother Teresa was canonised as a saint on September 4, 2021, by Pope Francis, 19 years after her death . She was committed to serving the poor and sick on the streets of Kolkata and did so for 45 years. 'Pope Francis today approved Mother Teresa's elevation to sainthood and set September 4 as the date for her canonisation,' said a message from the Vatican to the Mother's House, the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. Devasahayam Pillai was the first Indian layman to be declared a saint by Pope Francis. He embraced Christianity in the 18th century and received his canonisation by the Pope on May 15 during an impressive canonisation ceremony at the Vatican. Devasahayam was recommended for the process of Beatification by the Vatican in 2004, at the request of the Kottar diocese, Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India. Can the Pope strip anyone of sainthood? Canonisation or ascribing sainthood is considered, or an unerring and perfect act, only when the pope himself proclaims a person a saint . Once declared a saint, the person remains one permanently; they cannot be 'de-canonised'. However, there are instances where the Church has re-evaluated past beatifications (ceremony recognising a deceased person as worthy of limited public veneration) or questioned historical figures' reputations. Some of them are: Saint Junípero Serra – Although there was much criticism towards this, Pope Francis canonised Junípero Serra in 2015. Much of the criticism was regarding his role in the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in California. Pope Pius XII - Pope Pius XII's actions during WWII, particularly concerning the Holocaust, were a cause of concern. Pope Francis ordered the unsealing of it in the Vatican archives to re-evaluate his beatification. Beatification of Archbishop Óscar Romero - Óscar Romero, a Salvadoran archbishop, was assassinated in 1980. The cause for his beatification being blocked multiple times in the past under previous popes was due to claims of leftist political ties. Pope Francis changed that by canonising him a saint in 2018. Father Giuseppe Beotti - Pope Francis halted the beatification of Father Giuseppe Beotti, an Italian priest executed by Nazis, in 2023 over doubts regarding his documentation.
NDTV
21-04-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
From Election To Foreign Trips: Key Statistics About Pope Francis
Rome: Here are some statistics about Pope Francis, whose death at the age of 88 was announced by the Vatican on Monday. ELECTION The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope on March 13, 2013. He was the 266th pope and the first from Latin America. He was the first pontiff to take the name Francis. DURATION Francis reigned longer than the 7.5-year average length of the previous 265 pontificates. He was also the second oldest pope in history. The last sitting pontiff to have lived longer was Leo XIII, who was 93 when he died in 1903. Before him, there is no verifiable record of an older man having served as pope. Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, died at the age of 95, but he was 85 when he retired as pope. CARDINALS There are currently 252 cardinals, the red-hatted "princes of the Church", who advise the pope, run major dioceses around the world and often lead powerful departments within the Vatican bureaucracy. Currently, 135 cardinals are aged under 80 and thus eligible under Church law to enter a conclave to elect a pope after Francis dies or retires. They are known as cardinal electors and Francis appointed 109 of them. The other electors were appointed by his predecessors. FOREIGN TRIPS Francis made 47 trips outside of Italy, visiting more than 65 states and territories, clocking up more than 465,000 km (289,000 miles). He visited Brazil in 2013. In 2014, he was in Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, South Korea, Albania, France, Turkey. In 2015, he was in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Cuba, the United States, Kenya, Uganda, the Central African Republic. In 2016, he was in Mexico, Greece, Armenia, Poland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Sweden. In 2017, he was in Egypt, Portugal, Colombia, Myanmar, Bangladesh. In 2018, he was in Chile, Peru, Switzerland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. In 2019, he was in Panama, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Thailand, Japan. In 2020, he made no foreign trips. In 2021, he was in Iraq, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece and Cyprus. In 2022, he was in Malta, Canada, Kazakhstan, Bahrain. In 2023, he was in Congo, South Sudan, Hungary, Portugal, Mongolia, France. In 2024, he was in Indonesia, Singapore, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Belgium, Luxembourg and the French island of Corsica. He made around 37 trips in Italy, starting with the island of Lampedusa, a landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean en route to Europe, in July 2013. SAINTS Francis created more than 900 new saints, including his predecessors John XXIII, John Paul II and Paul VI, as well as Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed in 1980. The figure includes the Martyrs of Otranto, residents of a southern Italian city slain by Ottoman troops in 1480. The Vatican says they numbered about 800. He beatified more than 1,350 people. Beatification is the last step before sainthood. ENCYCLICALS An encyclical is the most important form of papal document. Francis wrote four, starting in 2013 with "Lumen Fidei" (Light of Faith) on the importance of Christian faith, partly written by his predecessor Pope Benedict. In 2015, he released "Laudato Si" (Praised Be), which called for urgent action on climate change. He updated this work in 2023, with an Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum (Praise God), where he appealed to climate change deniers and foot-dragging politicians to have a change of heart. In 2020, his Fratelli Tutti (Brothers All) tackled the issue of solidarity among people in the post-pandemic world. In 2024, his Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us) urged Catholics to abandon the "mad pursuit" of money and instead devote themselves to their faith. He also wrote numerous other major documents, such as Apostolic Constitutions and Apostolic Exhortations.
Fox News
21-04-2025
- General
- Fox News
5 ways Pope Francis impacted the Catholic Church
Pope Francis was elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013, at the age of 76. He has now passed away at the age of 88. Born in Argentina as Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis joined the Society of Jesus at the age of 21. He was ordained a priest days before his 33rd birthday and was consecrated as an auxiliary bishop of his hometown of Buenos Aires in 1992. In 1998, he was named the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, serving in that role until his election to the papacy in 2013. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2001 by Pope John Paul II – whom he would later canonize. Here are five ways the pope impacted the Catholic Church. Pope Francis was the first Jesuit to be elected pope. A Jesuit is a member of the Society of Jesus, a religious order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola. Francis' election marked many other firsts. A native of Argentina, he was the first pope to be elected from the Americas and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. He was also the first pope to adopt the regnal name "Francis." "For many Jesuits, what the first Jesuit pope meant was someone who could show the world what the Jesuits are really about, beyond the stereotypes," Fr. David Paternostro, S.J., a Jesuit priest who lives in Missouri, told Fox News Digital. "Francis is a man who has felt Jesus close to him in spite of his sins and wants others to have this same feeling." Paternostro continued, "From his very first interview, where he answered the question, 'Who is Jorge Mario Bergolio' by declaring 'I am a sinner,' he demonstrated a hallmark of Jesuit spirituality: a sense of being a sinner loved by the Lord and called to friendship with Jesus." Pope Francis, Paternostro said, "showed the world what Jesuits can be at our best: a true evangelist, a true son of Ignatius and (as he has described himself repeatedly) a true son of the Church." "Francis is a man who has felt Jesus close to him in spite of his sins and wants others to have this same feeling," Paternostro said. Throughout the 12 years of his papacy, Pope Francis canonized nearly 1,000 people. (This total, however, includes the "Martyrs of Otranto," a group of 813 people who were killed on Aug. 14, 1480, in Otranto, Italy.) Among the notable people canonized by Pope Francis is St. Junipero Serra, a Spanish priest who established nine missions in what is now California. Serra's canonization on Sept. 23, 2015 was the first-ever on U.S. soil, Fox News Digital previously reported. Francis also canonized Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Pope Paul VI, and Pope John XXIII. On Aug. 2, 2018, Pope Francis issued a letter revising the Catechism of the Catholic Church's teaching on the death penalty. "Pope Francis continued the recent tradition of previous popes, including from St. John Paul II, by escalating Catholic opposition to modern-day use of the death penalty," Charles Camosy, professor of bioethics at the Creighton University School of Medicine, told Fox News Digital. Camosy is based in New Jersey. Francis' language in the letter, however, "stopped short of calling the practice intrinsically evil, a term used frequently in Catholic moral theology," Camosy said. Instead, Francis used the term "inadmissible" and said it was an attack on human dignity. "I think it is fair to say that the Holy Father used the strongest possible language against the death penalty without using language that would 100% close the door on it no matter what," Camosy said. Italy was one of the hardest-hit areas in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic and saw thousands of deaths. The entire country went into lockdown on March 9, the first to do so. About two weeks later, on March 27, 2020, in one of the most striking moments of his papacy, Pope Francis delivered a special "Urbi et Orbi" ("from the city to the world") blessing from St. Peter's Square, which was televised worldwide. For Dawn Eden Goldstein, a Washington, D.C.-based theologian and canon lawyer, the moment had special meaning. "I have never been so proud to be a Catholic as when Pope Francis gave his extraordinary blessing to the world from a near-empty St. Peter's Square on March 27, 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when half the world was under lockdown," she said. She continued, "His message was powerful: He encouraged us to treat the crisis as an opportunity for personal conversion and for building fraternity, and he assured us that Jesus was with us." After the blessing, Pope Francis lifted the Eucharist, contained in a special receptacle called a monstrance, and took it out of St. Peter's Basilica. Visibly limping, Pope Francis then blessed the world. "He gave us all a moment of profound intimacy with the Lord at the time when we needed it most," Goldstein said. The word "Catholic" translates to "universal," and Pope Francis' papacy exemplified this. Francis visited places no previous pontiff had ever visited and appointed cardinals from non-traditional locations. During his papacy, Pope Francis became the first pope to visit Iraq, Mongolia, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates. In 2015, Francis visited the Central African Republic, becoming the first pope to enter an active war zone. For more Lifestyle articles, visit During his papacy, Pope Francis created 163 cardinals who were from a total of 75 countries. A third of these countries had never before been represented in the College of Cardinals. Francis appointed the first cardinals from Bangladesh, Brunei, Central African Republic, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Haiti, Laos, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mali, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, South Sudan, St. Lucia, Sweden, Timor-Leste and Tonga, according to the Vatican's website.
Reuters
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Pope Francis: His pontificate in numbers
ROME, April 21 (Reuters) - Here are some statistics about Pope Francis, whose death at the age of 88 was announced by the Vatican on Monday. ELECTION The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope on March 13, 2013. He was the 266th pope and the first from Latin America. He was the first pontiff to take the name Francis. DURATION Francis reigned longer than the 7.5-year average length of the previous 265 pontificates. He was also the second oldest pope in history. The last sitting pontiff to have lived longer was Leo XIII, who was 93 when he died in 1903. Before him, there is no verifiable record of an older man having served as pope. Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, died at the age of 95, but he was 85 when he retired as pope. CARDINALS There are currently 252 cardinals, the red-hatted "princes of the Church", who advise the pope, run major dioceses around the world and often lead powerful departments within the Vatican bureaucracy. Currently, 135 cardinals are aged under 80 and thus eligible under Church law to enter a conclave to elect a pope after Francis dies or retires. They are known as cardinal electors and Francis appointed 109 of them. The other electors were appointed by his predecessors. FOREIGN TRIPS Francis made 47 trips outside of Italy, visiting more than 65 states and territories, clocking up more than 465,000 km (289,000 miles). He visited Brazil in 2013. In 2014, he was in Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, South Korea, Albania, France, Turkey. In 2015, he was in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Cuba, the United States, Kenya, Uganda, the Central African Republic. In 2016, he was in Mexico, Greece, Armenia, Poland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Sweden. In 2017, he was in Egypt, Portugal, Colombia, Myanmar, Bangladesh. In 2018, he was in Chile, Peru, Switzerland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. In 2019, he was in Panama, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Thailand, Japan. In 2020, he made no foreign trips. In 2021, he was in Iraq, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece and Cyprus. In 2022, he was in Malta, Canada, Kazakhstan, Bahrain. In 2023, he was in Congo, South Sudan, Hungary, Portugal, Mongolia, France. In 2024, he was in Indonesia, Singapore, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Belgium, Luxembourg and the French island of Corsica. He made around 37 trips in Italy, starting with the island of Lampedusa, a landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean en route to Europe, in July 2013. SAINTS Francis created more than 900 new saints, including his predecessors John XXIII, John Paul II and Paul VI, as well as Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed in 1980. The figure includes the Martyrs of Otranto, residents of a southern Italian city slain by Ottoman troops in 1480. The Vatican says they numbered about 800. He beatified more than 1,350 people. Beatification is the last step before sainthood. ENCYCLICALS An encyclical is the most important form of papal document. Francis wrote four, starting in 2013 with "Lumen Fidei" (Light of Faith) on the importance of Christian faith, partly written by his predecessor Pope Benedict. In 2015, he released "Laudato Si" (Praised Be), which called for urgent action on climate change. He updated this work in 2023, with an Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum (Praise God), where he appealed to climate change deniers and foot-dragging politicians to have a change of heart. In 2020, his Fratelli Tutti (Brothers All) tackled the issue of solidarity among people in the post-pandemic world. In 2024, his Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us) urged Catholics to abandon the "mad pursuit" of money and instead devote themselves to their faith. He also wrote numerous other major documents, such as Apostolic Constitutions and Apostolic Exhortations.
