Statue of St. Peter on St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Vatican City, Apr 28, 2025 / 07:25 am
Pope Francis passed away Easter Monday, April 21. The 88-year-old pontiff led the Catholic Church for a little more than 12 years. His burial at St. Mary Major took place Saturday, April 26.
Follow here for live updates of the latest news and information on the papal transition.
Below are updates as of 9:21 a.m. ET:
Apr 28, 2025 / 07:13 am (CNA).
The College of Cardinals announced Monday that the conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.
The pivotal proclamation came following a morning General Congregation meeting at the Vatican, where cardinals have been gathering daily since Pope Francis’ burial at St. Mary Major Basilica on April 26.
The date falls within the traditional 15-20 day window following a pope’s death, allowing sufficient time for the “novendiales” mourning period and for cardinal electors to arrive from across the globe.
Of the 134 cardinals who will take part — those under 80 years of age — nearly all have already arrived in Rome. The remaining few are expected within days, according to Vatican sources.
The voting will take place beneath Michelangelo’s magnificent frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
Detail from Michelangelo’s fresco The Last Judgement, in the Sistine Chapel (1536-41).
Following tradition, the cardinals will celebrate a “Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff” in St. Peter’s Basilica on the morning of May 7 before processing into the Sistine Chapel while chanting the “Veni Creator Spiritus,” invoking the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Once inside, each cardinal will take an oath to observe the procedures, maintain secrecy, and vote freely for the candidate they believe most worthy. The chapel doors will then be closed to the outside world until a new pope is chosen.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the conclave. A two-thirds majority — 90 votes — is required to elect the new pope.
The world will watch for the traditional signals from the Sistine Chapel chimney: black smoke indicating an inconclusive ballot, white smoke announcing that a new pope has been elected.
Pope Francis was responsible for appointing 108 of the cardinal electors who will now choose his successor, dramatically reshaping the geographic makeup of the College of Cardinals during his pontificate. The college now includes representatives from countries with small Catholic populations and from regions previously underrepresented in papal elections.
Cardinals in Rome. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
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Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Courtney Mares / CNA
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 08:36 am (CNA).
Catholics from Germany, France, Ghana, India, Australia, Uganda, and many more countries who attended the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday have shared their favorite memories of the late pope and why some decided to join in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the ceremony.
More than 50,000 people attended the Jan. 5 funeral for the pope emeritus, who died at the age of 95 last Saturday.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia.
“It was emotional seeing the coffin coming out of the basilica,” he told CNA.
Escamila, a numerary from Opus Dei, recalled how Benedict XVI rested for a few days in the Opus Dei center in Sydney where he was living at the time.
“I had the privilege of living together with him for three days in Sydney in 2008 just before World Youth Day. We spent three days together. I attended his Mass. I ate with him. I listened to music with him,” he said.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia. Courtney Mares / CNA
Benedict XVI was “very humble” and “approachable,” Escamila remembered. “From the beginning he learned my name. He addressed me by my first name and I was very impressed by that.”
Arthur Escamila meets Pope Benedict XVI during the pope’s trip to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15–20, 2008. Vatican Media
“My father had recently died. He was interested in that and asked me questions about my father, my family. He wanted to know about his illness. So I was personally touched,” he said.
“So his death meant a lot because it was closing a chapter where I knew the pope emeritus personally and had a connection with him that was personal.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, also spoke about his personal memories of Benedict XVI.
The cardinal, who traveled from India for the funeral, told CNA that he found the funeral “very moving” and a “fitting farewell for the Holy Father Emeritus.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, spoke about his personal memories of Pope Benedict XVI at the pope’s funeral on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“He was a great theologian, the greatest of the 20th century I think. I personally … whenever I read any article, any book, any homily of his I always got a new insight into theology or spirituality. His was a great contribution for the Church,” Gracias said.
The Indian cardinal also expressed gratitude for the many ways that the former pope touched his life: “He created me cardinal. He appointed me archbishop of Bombay … and we met often. I was on the committee for the translation of liturgical texts and so we discussed much there.”
Father Albert Musinguzi from Uganda said that he felt “deep spiritual joy” at the funeral, especially because it was the first Mass he had ever concelebrated at the Vatican.
Father Albert Musinguzi (second from right) with other priests and deacons at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“Although we have lost a great man, we are not mourning. We are celebrating a spiritual giant, a great man, a gift to the Church and to the entire world because Pope Benedict was a man not only for the Church but for the entire world,” he said.
The priest from Uganda’s Archdiocese of Mbarara, currently studying in Rome, said that he believes that the late pope emeritus is a saint.
“Pope Benedict was a humble pope, but a great theologian. We have learned from his humility to approach God from the Word of God. But what I like most from his preaching is that God and science are not opposed to each other … And what touched me most recently in the life of Pope Benedict XVI were his last words,” Musinguzi said.
“As we know Pope Benedict was 95 years old, so for 71 years he has given homilies and innumerable essays. He has written 66 books, three encyclicals, four exhortations, and he has summarized all of them in four words, which were his last four words: ‘Jesus, I love you.’”
Tabea Schneider traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, with many other enthusiastic German pilgrims who spontaneously decided to come to Rome for the funeral. She said that she was very moved when Pope Francis touched the coffin of Benedict XVI.
Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“It was a very emotional moment,” she said.
A group of approximately 65 people from all across France traveled together to Rome for Benedict’s funeral.
The Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame, a men and women’s religious community, organized two buses.
After the funeral, the group prayed the Liturgy of the Hours outside St. Peter’s Square for the repose of the soul of Benedict XVI.
Members of the Famille Missionnaire de Notre Dame traveled to Rome from France for Benedict XVI’s funeral.
Sister Maksymiliana Domini, originally from Poland, told CNA the group arrived on Tuesday evening and will depart the night of the funeral.
“We love Pope Benedict,” she said, adding that they wanted to honor him and his legacy.
The Famille Missionnarie de Notre-Dame, she said, feels very close to Benedict because of their shared love for the Church’s liturgy and for an interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in the hermeneutic of continuity.
“We are 100% aligned with him spiritually,” Domini said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, said that he enthusiastically joined in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the Mass.
“I feel in my heart that Pope Benedict is a saint,” the priest said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, (left) with a seminarian from his diocese at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Alan Koppschall / EWTN
Vatican City, Nov 12, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The Vatican announced Thursday that it had appointed an interim president of the foundation which owns and operates a scandal-ridden dermatological hospital in Rome.
Fr. Giuseppe Pusceddu, a member and the superior of the Italian province of the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, was named Nov. 12 as the interim president of the board of directors of the Luigi Maria Monti Foundation.
The Luigi Maria Monti Foundation owns and manages Rome’s Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata, or IDI, along with other health structures. Pusceddu was also named president of IDI Farmaceutici srl, a pharmaceutical agency connected to the hospital.
Fr. Pusceddu succeeds Antonio Maria Leozappa, a layman, as president of the foundation. Pusceddu’s appointment marks the first time the foundation’s leadership has been returned to a member of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception since Benedict XVI appointed a Vatican commissioner to look into the hospital’s finances in 2013.
The IDI has been plagued by problems for a decade. After years of systematic theft and fraud by hospital administrators, leaving it with 800 million euros in debt, the hospital was declared bankrupt in 2012.
In 2015, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State stepped in, arranging to purchase the hospital out of state-administered bankruptcy through a for-profit partnership with the religious order that owned and managed the hospital — an arrangement which also ended in financial scandal.
The Vatican’s Nov. 12 statement said that “pending the appointment of new management, which will have to guide the foundation in continuing to face the difficult challenges of the moment,” Pusceddu and the other board members are entrusted with adapting the statutes of the foundation to better reflect the charism of its founding influence, Bl. Luigi Maria Monti.
“The Holy See, as before, will not lack its closeness and support to the Foundation and its works,” the statement concluded.
After the IDI was driven into bankruptcy by a series of embezzlement scandals, it was purchased in 2015 by a for-profit partnership created by the Secretariat of State and the religious order that had owned the hospital, the Sons of the Immaculate Conception.
To carry out the purchase, the partnership received — through a complex series of transactions — 50 million euros, in a loan from the Vatican central bank, APSA, although APSA had agreed with European banking regulators not to make commercial loans.
In an attempt to take the loan off APSA’s books, officials in the Secretariat of State then asked the Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based charitable foundation, for a $25 million grant. The grant was approved, but subsequent questions from board members led to controversy and opposition. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has said that he organized the loan and the grant.
Pope Francis speaks on the solemnity Christ the King in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Nov. 24, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
CNA Newsroom, Nov 24, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Marking the solemnity of Christ the King and the close of the… […]
4 Comments
Given that the opening date of the Council of Nicaea was May 20, 2025, and that the celebration this year of the 1700th anniversary is very near that date, surely the conclave can conclude in time for the new pope to attend, and surely the conclave deliberations and vote will produce a successor to St. Peter who is more universally acceptable than has been Fiducia Supplicans, or the Provisional Agreement with the atheist Chinese regime—or the recently proposed “Ecclesial Assembly of 2028” as a possible substitute (?) for future “synods of bishops” or any future and real ecumenical councils by the Successors of the Apostles.
Is it “[Sure] the conclave deliberations and vote will produce a successor to St. Peter who is more universally acceptable” because the bar is so low? Although my hope is for what you and many of us have.
I want a Pope who’s willing to tell the Catholic faithful:
#1. The name of his Spiritual Director
#2. How often he meets with his Spiritual Diector
#3. How frequently he avails himself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation
This is not too much to ask of the leader of one BILLION Catholics, is it?
Given that the opening date of the Council of Nicaea was May 20, 2025, and that the celebration this year of the 1700th anniversary is very near that date, surely the conclave can conclude in time for the new pope to attend, and surely the conclave deliberations and vote will produce a successor to St. Peter who is more universally acceptable than has been Fiducia Supplicans, or the Provisional Agreement with the atheist Chinese regime—or the recently proposed “Ecclesial Assembly of 2028” as a possible substitute (?) for future “synods of bishops” or any future and real ecumenical councils by the Successors of the Apostles.
Is it “[Sure] the conclave deliberations and vote will produce a successor to St. Peter who is more universally acceptable” because the bar is so low? Although my hope is for what you and many of us have.
I want a Pope who’s willing to tell the Catholic faithful:
#1. The name of his Spiritual Director
#2. How often he meets with his Spiritual Diector
#3. How frequently he avails himself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation
This is not too much to ask of the leader of one BILLION Catholics, is it?
Pope Francis has shown the way. The Holy Spirit will do the rest. Wishing the Cardinals strength and stamina. God bless.