Nancy Pelosi in the Vatican with Cardinal Turkson / Twitter @VaticanIHD / Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development Prefect
Vatican City, Oct 8, 2021 / 11:30 am (CNA).
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) discussed the environment, migration, and human rights during a visit to the Vatican on Friday.
The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development announced the visit on Oct. 8 in a post on its Twitter account.
It said: “We welcome Speaker Pelosi from the U.S. House of Representatives. We talked about caring for the environment, in the light of [Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical] Laudato si’, migration issues, human rights, health in times of pandemic, and the work of the Vatican COVID Commission.”
An accompanying photograph showed the 81-year-old standing between Cardinal Peter Turkson, the dicastery’s prefect, and Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, the dicastery’s “ad interim” secretary and coordinator of the COVID Commission.
Smerilli tweeted that the meeting was “great and inspiring.”
The House Speaker was accompanied by her husband, the businessman Paul Pelosi, and Patrick Connell, the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, which currently lacks an ambassador.
A photograph showed Turkson presenting the Pelosis with a copy of the book “Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith?” released by the Vatican Dicastery for Communication to mark the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ extraordinary “Urbi et Orbi” blessing as the coronavirus pandemic swept the world.
Pelosi, a Catholic mother of five, has clashed repeatedly with the archbishop of her home diocese over her support for abortion.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone launched a prayer campaign last month aimed at inspiring “a conversion of heart” among politicians supporting the practice.
“A conversion of heart of the majority of our Congressional representatives is needed on this issue, beginning with the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” the San Francisco archbishop said.
“I am therefore inviting all Catholics to join in a massive and visible campaign of prayer and fasting for Speaker Pelosi: commit to praying one rosary a week and fasting on Fridays for her conversion of heart.”
A rose will be sent to the Speaker “as a symbol of your prayer and fasting for her,” he explained.
In May, Pelosi said that she was “pleased” with a Vatican letter to the U.S. bishops which addressed Communion for pro-abortion politicians. She claimed that the Vatican had instructed the bishops not to be “divisive” on the issue.
In response, Cordileone said the Vatican was in fact promoting “dialogue” between bishops and pro-abortion politicians, “to help them understand the grave evil they are helping to perpetrate and accompany them to a change of heart.”
“I’m happy to know that Speaker Pelosi said she is pleased with the letter,” the archbishop said.
“Speaker Pelosi’s positive reaction” to the letter, he noted, “raises hope that progress can be made in this most serious matter.”
In July, Cordileone criticized Pelosi after she cited her Catholic faith while defending efforts to permit federal funding of elective abortions.
“Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” he said.
Cardinal Turkson was drawn this week into the debate over whether Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, should be denied Communion over his support for abortion.
In an interview with Axios on HBO, the Ghanaian cardinal said: “If you say somebody cannot receive Communion, you are basically doing a judgment that you are in a state of sin.”
“It sounds like you don’t think that should happen in the case of President Biden,” said the interviewer.
“No,” Turkson replied. “You know, if, you know, a priest who’s distributing Communion sees — unexpected all of a sudden somebody he knows to have committed murder, he’s meant to protect their dignity and the respect of that person.”
“So it’s for extreme cases?” the interviewer suggested.
“Yeah. Those, for extreme cases, OK?” Turkson commented.
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Pallbearers carry the wooden coffin of Pope Francis, marked with a cross, into St. Peter’s Square for the funeral Mass on April 26, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 26, 2025 / 05:03 am (CNA).
More than 200,000 people filled St. Peter’s Square for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday as the world said goodbye to the first Latin American pope who led the Catholic Church for the past 12 years.
Under the bright Roman sun and amid crowds extending down the Via della Conciliazione, the funeral Mass unfolded within the great colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica. Heads of state, religious leaders, and pilgrims from across the globe gathered for the historic farewell.
An aerial view of St. Peter’s Square filled with thousands of mourners, clergy, and dignitaries gathered for Pope Francis’s funeral Mass under clear blue skies in Vatican City on April 26, 2025.`. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, presided over the Mass, delivering a homily that paid tribute to Francis’ missionary vision, human warmth, spontaneity, witness to mercy, and “charisma of welcome and listening.”
“Evangelization was the guiding principle of his pontificate,” Re said.
Pope Francis “often used the image of the Church as a ‘field hospital’ after a battle in which many were wounded; a Church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart; a Church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds.”
As bells tolled solemnly, the funeral rite began with the intonation of the entrance antiphon: “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”
The late pope’s closed plain wooden coffin lay in front of the altar throughout the Mass.
A view of the coffin of Pope Francis resting before the altar at the funeral Mass on St. Peter’s Square, April 26, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
“In this majestic Saint Peter’s Square, where Pope Francis celebrated the Eucharist so many times and presided over great gatherings over the past twelve years, we are gathered with sad hearts in prayer around his mortal remains,” Re said.
“With our prayers, we now entrust the soul of our beloved Pontiff to God, that he may grant him eternal happiness in the bright and glorious gaze of his immense love,” he added.
View of St. Peter’s Basilica during the Funeral Mass of Pope Francis on April 26, 2025. Peter Gagnon / EWTN
Among the more than 50 heads of state present were U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, alongside former President Joe Biden. Also in attendance were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Argentine President Javier Milei, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva joined the throng of international dignitaries along with representatives of religious traditions from around the world.
Royal families also paid their respects, with Prince William representing King Charles III and Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia seated near the altar.
Pilgrims arrived before sunrise to claim their spots in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass with the first in line camping out the night before.
The funeral followed the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, the official liturgical order for papal funerals, which was updated at Pope Francis’ own request in 2024. Scripture readings included Acts 10:34-43, Philippians 3:20–4:1, Psalm 22, and the Gospel of John 21:15-19 — a passage in which the risen Christ tells Peter: “Feed my sheep.”
More than 200 cardinals and 750 bishops and priests concelebrated the funeral Mass. More than 4,000 journalists representing 1,800 media outlets reported on the event. All told, the Holy See said more than 250,000 mourners attended.
In his homily, Cardinal Re reflected on key moments in Pope Francis’ pontificate from his risk-defying trip to Iraq to visit Christians communities persecuted by the Islamic State to his Mass on the border between Mexico and the United States during his journey to Mexico.
“Faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions,” the cardinal said, causing the crowd to erupt in spontaneous applause.
Pope Francis’ coffin lies in St. Peter’s Square during the papal funeral Mass on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Credit: EWTN News
“Pope Francis always placed the Gospel of mercy at the center, repeatedly emphasizing that God never tires of forgiving us. He forgives, whatever the situation might be of the person who asks for forgiveness and returns to the right path,” Re reflected. “Mercy and the joy of the Gospel are two key words for Pope Francis.”
The cardinal presided over the final commendation and farewell for Pope Francis, praying: “Dear brothers and sisters, let us commend to God’s tender mercy the soul of Pope Francis, bishop of the Catholic Church, who confirmed his brothers and sisters in the faith of the resurrection.”
“Let us pray to God our Father through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit; may he deliver him from death, welcome him to eternal peace and raise up him on the last day,” he said.
After the crowd chanted the Litany of Saints in Latin, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, offered a final prayer: “O God, faithful rewarder of souls, grant that your departed servant and our bishop, Pope Francis, whom you made successor of Peter and shepherd of your Church, may happily enjoy forever in your presence in heaven the mysteries of your grace and compassion, which he faithfully ministered on earth.”
A poignant moment followed as Eastern Catholic patriarchs, major archbishops, and metropolitans from the “sui iuris” Churches approached the coffin while a choir chanted a Greek prayer from the Byzantine Funeral Office.
Re blessed the coffin with holy water and incense as the choir sang in Latin: “I know that my Redeemer lives: on the last day I shall rise again.”
At the end of the Mass, the traditional antiphon “In Paradisum” was sung in Latin, asking for the angels to guide the pope’s soul to heaven.
“May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come and welcome you and take you to the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem. May choirs of angels welcome you and with Lazarus, who is poor no longer, may you have eternal rest.”
In keeping with his wishes, Pope Francis will not be buried in the Vatican grottoes alongside his predecessors. Instead, his body will be taken in procession through the streets of Rome in a vehicle to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a church he visited over 100 times in his lifetime to pray before an icon of the Virgin Mary, “Salus Populi Romani,” particularly before and after his papal journeys.
Pope Francis’ wooden coffin is transported on the popemobile through the streets of Rome as crowds of faithful line the procession route from St. Peter’s Basilica to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, April 26, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
In Rome’s most important Marian basilica, Pope Francis will be laid to rest in a simple tomb marked with a single word: Franciscus.
Remembering Pope Francis
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and entered the Society of Jesus at age 21. Following his ordination in 1969, he served as a Jesuit provincial, seminary rector, and professor before St. John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992. He became archbishop of the Argentine capital in 1998 and was created cardinal in 2001.
The surprise election of Cardinal Bergoglio on March 13, 2013, at age 76 marked several historic firsts: He became the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to choose the name Francis, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi’s devotion to poverty, peace, and creation.
His 12-year pontificate was characterized by a focus on mercy, care for creation, and attention to what he called the “peripheries” of both the Church and society. He made 47 apostolic journeys outside Italy, though he never visited his native Argentina.
During his tenure, Pope Francis canonized 942 saints — more than any other pope in history — including his predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II. He published four encyclicals and seven apostolic exhortations while promulgating 75 motu proprio documents.
Throughout his papacy, Francis significantly reshaped the College of Cardinals through 10 consistories, creating 163 new cardinals. His appointments reflected his vision of a global Church, elevating prelates from the peripheries and creating cardinals in places that had never before had one, including Mongolia and South Sudan.
Health challenges marked the pope’s final years. He underwent surgery in July 2021 and in June 2023. In November 2023, he suffered from pulmonary inflammation, and in February 2025, he was hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for bronchitis and a respiratory infection.
His papacy faced unprecedented challenges, including the global COVID-19 pandemic, during which he offered historic moments of prayer for humanity, notably the extraordinary urbi et orbi blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square in March 2020. He also repeatedly called for peace amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Holy Land.
Francis convoked four synods, including the Synod on Synodality, whose second session concluded in October 2024. He implemented significant reforms of the Roman Curia and took several steps to address the clergy abuse crisis, including the 2019 motu proprio Vos Estis Lux Mundi.
Pope Francis’ funeral marks the first day in the Catholic Church’s traditional nine-day mourning period that will include nine days of requiem Masses to be offered for the repose of his soul.
“Pope Francis used to conclude his speeches and meetings by saying, ‘Do not forget to pray for me,’ Re recalled at the end of his homily.
“Dear Pope Francis, we now ask you to pray for us. May you bless the Church, bless Rome, and bless the whole world from heaven as you did last Sunday from the balcony of this Basilica in a final embrace with all the people of God, but also embrace humanity that seeks the truth with a sincere heart and holds high the torch of hope.”
A group of young people from the Apostolic Movement of Jish, led by Father Sandy Habib, during prayer before the meal on July 12, 2024, at the Maronite convent in Jerusalem. The aim is “bringing ourselves closer to Jesus,” Habib explained to CNA… […]
Statue of St. Peter in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Vatican Media
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 17, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).
The World Meeting of Parish Priests for the Synod on Synodality will be held April 29–May 2 in Sacrofano, Rome, and will reflect on the theme “How to Be a Synodal Local Church in Mission.”
With a view to the second and last session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held at the Vatican next October, the General Secretariat of the Synod has invited a number of parish priests to travel to Rome.
Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod and coordinator of the initiative, explained that it is “a meeting of listening, prayer, and discernment promoted by the General Secretariat of the Synod and the Dicastery for the Clergy, together with the Dicastery for Evangelization and the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.”
The meeting also responds “to the recommendations of the participants in the first session of the Synod of Synodality, held in October 2023, who suggested listening more to the voice of the parish priests.”
As Marín explained, the objective will be to “listen to and enhance the synodal experience that they are having in their respective parishes and dioceses” as well as “enable dialogue and the exchange of experiences and ideas.”
Another purpose of the meeting is to “provide materials that will be used in the drafting of the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the synod’s second session, together with the summaries of the consultation coordinated by the bishops’ conferences and the results of the theological-canonical study carried out by five working groups formed by the General Secretariat of the Synod.”
The number of participants was determined according to a criterion similar to that used for the election of members of the Synod Assembly by the bishops’ conferences (approximately 200). However, given the requests received from some bishops’ conferences, the number of participants will be greater than 200.
In selecting participants, bishops’ conferences and Eastern Catholic Churches were asked to take into account, as far as possible, those “who have significant experience with the perspective of a synodal Church” as well as “favor a certain variety of pastoral contexts of rural or urban origin or specific sociocultural contexts.”
On the last day of the gathering, May 2, the parish priests will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican and the meeting will end with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
As much as I admire Archbishop Cordileone for his Apostolic faith he’s dreaming dreams regarding Speaker Pelosi as she lives in her own secularized Christian dreamworld. Cardinal Turkson, an admirable prelate, responded politically rather than honestly to the interviewer’s query on communion. The closer good prelates in the chain of command are to Francis the more unwilling they are to appear in contradiction. A rose for Pelosi is touching though I doubt effective. Unless a storm of prayer and sacrifice changes her. Nevertheless a dose of hard truth directed to her by Cordileone would have the required added effect. Ms Nancy is well inured to complaints from orthodox Catholics. What would Bishop John Fisher Rochester England have done? Back then Henry VIII had him decapitated. Today he would, I’m confident, address issues with Pelosi, the Pontiff directly. Francis’ letter on face value was a deterrent to Cordileone or any bishop to invoke canon 915 and begin the process of counsel warning final refusal if she persisted in her heresy [the decision to write a statement of faith on communion will not reveal to Pelosi, Biden anything they don’t already know]. What would today’s king have done? What could he do if a prelate brings this ongoing charade to an either or resolution? Whatever the king might do openly, or engineer stealthily if opposed by a modern day John Fisher would address a larger issue. The king’s adherence to Church doctrine. My point is we need men like Turkson and Cordileone to take a just stand in loyalty to Christ not the king. Just as Bishop John Fisher did then and would surely do now.
A must addition is Optics. What Catholics see compared to words spoken or written mean far more in today’s disillusioned world. Cardinals nuns giggling smiling with the House Speaker at the Vatican she centered as the attraction is a devastating message, a visual confirmation for the skeptic’s opinion that Church teaching on Eucharistic coherence, worthiness to receive is worth a sarcastic chuckle or two. This is impossible. We’ve got to do better.
Other comments express similar thoughts. Although who knows whether someone who has convinced herself and hardened in her belief that a rebuke would have the opposite desired effect. That perhaps a rose may speak more eloquently to the heart permitting an entry for the Holy Spirit. Archbishop Cordileone also has Nancy Pelosi’s salvation as his intent within this Eucharistic crisis, and whatever our personal perspective he deserves our prayers in his effort.
Archbishop Cordileone recently told Eric Sammons that he “wasn’t ready” to deny Pelosi Holy Communion. Pray tell, when will that momentous day ever come? By continuing with all the empty talk about how a Catholic cannot support abortion, he only damages the cause he purports to defend. The most charitable explanation of the discrepancy between Cordileone’s words and actions, is that he knows that any attempt to discipline Pelosi will meet with a swift rebuke from the Vatican. The photos accompanying the article certainly offer more proof, if we really needed any, that she is in good standing with the Vatican. But by all means, let’s persist with the charade that the great majority of the hierarchy thinks that stopping the slaughter of innocent babies is particularly important.
As much as I admire Archbishop Cordileone for his Apostolic faith he’s dreaming dreams regarding Speaker Pelosi as she lives in her own secularized Christian dreamworld. Cardinal Turkson, an admirable prelate, responded politically rather than honestly to the interviewer’s query on communion. The closer good prelates in the chain of command are to Francis the more unwilling they are to appear in contradiction. A rose for Pelosi is touching though I doubt effective. Unless a storm of prayer and sacrifice changes her. Nevertheless a dose of hard truth directed to her by Cordileone would have the required added effect. Ms Nancy is well inured to complaints from orthodox Catholics. What would Bishop John Fisher Rochester England have done? Back then Henry VIII had him decapitated. Today he would, I’m confident, address issues with Pelosi, the Pontiff directly. Francis’ letter on face value was a deterrent to Cordileone or any bishop to invoke canon 915 and begin the process of counsel warning final refusal if she persisted in her heresy [the decision to write a statement of faith on communion will not reveal to Pelosi, Biden anything they don’t already know]. What would today’s king have done? What could he do if a prelate brings this ongoing charade to an either or resolution? Whatever the king might do openly, or engineer stealthily if opposed by a modern day John Fisher would address a larger issue. The king’s adherence to Church doctrine. My point is we need men like Turkson and Cordileone to take a just stand in loyalty to Christ not the king. Just as Bishop John Fisher did then and would surely do now.
A must addition is Optics. What Catholics see compared to words spoken or written mean far more in today’s disillusioned world. Cardinals nuns giggling smiling with the House Speaker at the Vatican she centered as the attraction is a devastating message, a visual confirmation for the skeptic’s opinion that Church teaching on Eucharistic coherence, worthiness to receive is worth a sarcastic chuckle or two. This is impossible. We’ve got to do better.
Other comments express similar thoughts. Although who knows whether someone who has convinced herself and hardened in her belief that a rebuke would have the opposite desired effect. That perhaps a rose may speak more eloquently to the heart permitting an entry for the Holy Spirit. Archbishop Cordileone also has Nancy Pelosi’s salvation as his intent within this Eucharistic crisis, and whatever our personal perspective he deserves our prayers in his effort.
Archbishop Cordileone recently told Eric Sammons that he “wasn’t ready” to deny Pelosi Holy Communion. Pray tell, when will that momentous day ever come? By continuing with all the empty talk about how a Catholic cannot support abortion, he only damages the cause he purports to defend. The most charitable explanation of the discrepancy between Cordileone’s words and actions, is that he knows that any attempt to discipline Pelosi will meet with a swift rebuke from the Vatican. The photos accompanying the article certainly offer more proof, if we really needed any, that she is in good standing with the Vatican. But by all means, let’s persist with the charade that the great majority of the hierarchy thinks that stopping the slaughter of innocent babies is particularly important.
Mm. Maybe Cordileone needs to work on Turkson too.