Vatican News

In closed-door sessions called congregations, cardinals have given 70 speeches to their brethren. The conclave is likely to begin May 6.

Many young people who had planned to attend the canonization of Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, were among those who paid their respects to the late pontiff April 26. 

A simplified papal funeral will make a fitting farewell for a pontiff who just three days after his surprise election expressed his desire for "a church that is poor and for the poor."

Los católicos de Latinoamérica observaron que el papa Francisco, el primero del nuevo mundo, trajo al Vaticano una nueva forma de hablar de Dios: cercanía con las periferias, impulso a la sinodalidad, defensa de la Amazonía, de los pueblos originarios y de los afrodescendientes, y reconocimiento de una Iglesia con rostro latinoamericano. "Era un papa latinoamericano... muy versado en una nueva eclesiología. Era un papa del pueblo. Quería construir una teología desde abajo, una teología de respeto a los vulnerables, de estar con los pobres", afirmó una religiosa colombiana.

 

Pope Francis, history's first pontiff from the Global South, has died at age 88 following a monthslong respiratory illness, setting the stage for a high-stakes secretive election to determine his successor.

Catholics around the world expressed their sadness and non-Catholics sent their condolences upon hearing the news of Pope Francis' death at age 88 on Easter Monday.

Latin Americans observed that Pope Francis, the first pope from the new world, brought to the Vatican a new way of talking about God, lifting up causes and convictions that they shared.

Pope Francis, who elevated the status of women, and especially women religious, within the Catholic Church more than any pontiff in history, died early April 21. He was 88.