Rome, Italy, Jan 9, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis’ personal doctor, Fabrizio Soccorsi, has died from health complications related to the coronavirus, according to the Vatican.
The 78-year-old physician, who was being treated for an “oncological pathology,” died at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, according to Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Pope Francis named Soccorsi his personal physician in August 2015, after not renewing the term of papal doctor Patrizio Polisca, who was also head of the Vatican’s healthcare services.
Since the pontificate of St. Pope John Paul II, the two positions had been tied together, but Pope Francis diverged from this custom by choosing Soccorsi, a doctor from outside the Vatican.
As Francis’ personal physician, Soccorsi traveled with the pope on his international trips. During his visit to Fatima, Portugal in May 2017, Pope Francis laid two bunches of white roses before the statue of the Virgin Mary for Soccorsi’s daughter, who was critically ill, and died the following month.
Soccorsi trained in medicine and surgery at Rome’s La Sapienza University. His career included both medical practice and teaching, especially in the areas of hepatology, the digestive system, and immunology.
The doctor also did consulting for the health and hygiene office of the Vatican City State and was part of the council of medical experts at the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
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Pope Francis kisses the crucifix at the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 7, 2023. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 7, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
At the Vatican’s Good Friday liturgy, the papal preacher warned against the danger of believers being drawn into the “vortex of nihilism” by the post-modern world’s “total relativism.”
Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap., compared Friedrich Nietzsche’s words “God is dead” with the Catholic Church’s proclamation of the death of Christ as he preached at the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on April 7 in St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of Pope Francis.
At the beginning of the liturgy, Pope Francis arrived at the basilica dressed in red vestments in a wheelchair. Unlike in previous years, he was unable to lay prostrate but spent a moment in silent prayer before the main altar at the beginning of the liturgy.
Pope Francis arrives at the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St. Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday on April 7, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The Vatican announced earlier in the day that the 86-year-old pope, who was hospitalized with bronchitis last week, will not be attending the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Friday night due to cold weather.
In his homily, Cantalamessa noted that the Catholic Church has proclaimed the death of Christ for 2,000 years. He said: “At every Mass, after the consecration, we say or sing: ‘We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.’”
“Yet another ‘death of God’ has been proclaimed for a century and a half in our de-Christianized Western world. When, among cultivated people, one speaks of the ‘death of God,’ it is this other death of God – ideological and rather than historical – that is meant. To keep up with the times, some theologians hastened to build a theology around it: ‘The theology of the death of God.’”
“We cannot pretend to ignore the existence of this different narrative, without leaving prey to suspicion many believers,” he added.
Cantalamessa, who was made a cardinal in 2020 in recognition of his more than 40 years as Preacher of the Papal Household, said that he chose to speak about this topic “to keep believers – who knows, perhaps even just one or two university students – from being drawn into this vortex of nihilism which is the true ‘black hole’ of the spiritual universe.”
Pope Francis prays during the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 7, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
With relativism in the fields of ethics, philosophy, art, and religion, “nothing more is solid; everything is liquid, or even vaporous,” the cardinal said.
“As believers, it is our duty to show what there is behind, or underneath, that proclamation, namely the flicker of an ancient flame, the sudden eruption of a volcano that has never been extinguished since the beginning of the world,” he said.
After the homily, a deacon and Pope Francis read the 11 Good Friday Solemn Intercessions, which included prayers for the Jewish people, those who do not believe in God, and those suffering from war.
The Adoration of the Cross then took place, followed by the recitation of the Our Father and Holy Communion. Pope Francis kissed the crucifix after spending a moment in silent adoration standing at the foot of the cross.
Pope Francis adores the Holy Cross during the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on April 7, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
During his homily, Cantalamessa urged Christians to heed a warning from Dante Alighieri, who wrote in the Divine Comedy: “‘Christians, be ye more serious in your movements; Be ye not like a feather at each wind, And think not every water washes you.’”
The cardinal said: “Let us, therefore, continue to repeat, with heartfelt gratitude and more convinced than ever, the words we proclaim at every Mass: ‘We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.’”
The Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas. / Credit: Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity Discalced Carmelite Nuns
Bangkok, Thailand, Nov 21, 2019 / 02:30 am (CNA).- The dignity of the human person can be recognized and affirmed through loving medical care to the sick and injured, Pope Francis told the staff of St. Louis Catholic Hospital in Bangkok Thursday.
Respectful farewell to Fabrizio Soccorsi. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon the departed soul. Strength and courage to all his loved ones. God bless.
Not a very clear statement about what happened to the doctor. It leads the reader to conclude that the doctor died of COVID, yet curiously, fails to mention that he contracted COVID.
This is written so vaguely that it could mean that as a cancer patient, he simply couldn’t get the cancer treatment he otherwise would have readily received because of medical hurdles now prevailing because of COVID. This is what happened to my mother in October and November. She simply couldn’t get proper medical care.
Respectful farewell to Fabrizio Soccorsi. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon the departed soul. Strength and courage to all his loved ones. God bless.
https://www.conservativebeaver.com/2021/01/10/vatican-blackout-pope-arrested-on-80-count-indictment-for-child-trafficking-fraud/
This smells fishy too me. He is a doctor that studied in this kind of stuff yet he died from covid.
Not a very clear statement about what happened to the doctor. It leads the reader to conclude that the doctor died of COVID, yet curiously, fails to mention that he contracted COVID.
This is written so vaguely that it could mean that as a cancer patient, he simply couldn’t get the cancer treatment he otherwise would have readily received because of medical hurdles now prevailing because of COVID. This is what happened to my mother in October and November. She simply couldn’t get proper medical care.