Parolin: SSPX ordinations are ‘schismatic’

Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican published an instruction Tuesday aimed at applying norms established in Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic constitution on women’s contemplative orders, which emphasizes the need… […]

Vatican City, Mar 8, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis issued a plea to the international community to halt the violence and mounting death toll in the Syrian civil war, now in its ninth year.

Speaking on Sunday during the recitation of the Angelus, the pope said that he had “great apprehension for the inhumane situation of these defenseless people, among whom so many are children whose lives are at risk.”

Since December, Russian and government forces have launched a series of sustained attacks on opposition towns and cities, bringing a new spike in the violence and accompanying humanitarian crisis.

The pope called on the faithful to “come together to express their solidarity with the Syrian people,” especially “those who live in Idlib, and in Northwest Syria.”

The northwestern city of Idlib has been the focus of sustained attacked from forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad. Fighting in the region has displaced nearly 1 million people from their homes since December last year.

Turkish-backed rebels have opposed the Syrian government’s offensive in the province, which is the country’s last rebel-held territory. A cease-fire in the province signed by the leaders of Russia and Turkey went into effect March 6.

On Sunday, Francis asked the international community to make the suffering of the Syrian people a “priority in respect to every other interest,” and insisted the world cannot “look away from this humanitarian crisis.” 

The pope led the Sunday Angelus prayer from the library of the Apostolic Palace, via video link, instead from the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square. The decision for the pope not to appear in person was taken as Italy and Vatican City worked to respond to the spread of the coronavirus.

Despite the decision, pilgrims still gathered in the square for the prayers, including some holding signs and banners in support of the victims of violence in Syria.

On Saturday, the Vatican also announced that the pope would be saying his daily Mass in the Domus Santa Marta in private, without members of the faithful attending as guests, for at least the next week, and the Wednesday general audience would also be given via video.

The Italian government imposed a strict quarantine March 8 for northern and central regions of Italy, including Milan and Venice.

Most of the 5,883 people who have contracted Covid-19 in Italy have been in the northern regions of the country. The Italian Ministry of Health reported 76 confirmed cases in Rome’s Lazio region on the evening of March 7.

With 233 coronavirus-related deaths in Italy in two weeks — 85 of which have occurred in the past two days — Italy has had the most Covid-19 mortalities outside of China.

Italy’s museums, archaeological sites, concerts, and  movie theaters have all been closed until April 3, the Italian Minister of Tourism said March 8. All schools and universities will also remain closed throughout the country until March 15.

Pope Francis also said Sunday that he is “close in prayer to people suffering from the current coronavirus epidemic.”

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Pope Francis blesses the faithful at the Jubilee of the Sick in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on April 6, 2025, as his personal nurse, Massimo Strappetti, assists him in the wheelchair. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Apr 23, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Having cared for the aging Pope Francis as his personal nurse since 2022, Italian nurse Massimiliano Strappetti was among the few people who saw the Holy Father moments before his death on Easter Monday.

Before being appointed Pope Francis’ personal nurse in August 2022, Strappetti was the nursing coordinator for the Vatican’s health department. He started working in the Vatican in 2002 after having worked eight years in the intensive care unit of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

Strappetti’s appointment came very soon after he accompanied the Holy Father on a difficult apostolic journey to Canada from July 24–30, 2022. Throughout 2022, the Holy Father struggled with knee problems.

From August 2022 onward, Strappetti would be seen by the pope’s side at almost every one of the pontiff’s public appearances, including his weekly Wednesday general audiences and Sunday Angelus addresses in Rome and the Vatican as well as on his several apostolic journeys abroad.  

The pope’s last words and final greetings were reportedly addressed to Strappetti, the man he trusted to care for him throughout the multiple illnesses and health emergencies he endured in the last years of his life. 

“Thank you for bringing me back to the Square,” the pope is reported to have told the nurse. Stappetti, a husband and father known for his generosity toward others, brought the Holy Father in a wheelchair to the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to deliver his final Easter Sunday urbi et orbi address on April 20.

After the blessing, the pope turned to Strappetti for his opinion, asking: “Do you think I can manage it?” before going down to the square to greet the 50,000 people from his popemobile, Vatican News reported. 

The next day, the pope’s health began to deteriorate at around 5:30 a.m. on Easter Monday morning. An hour later, the Holy Father made a “gesture of farewell with his hand” to Strappetti before falling into a coma, after suffering a stroke, in his bed in his Casa Santa Marta apartment, Vatican News reported. 

Strappetti closely accompanied the 88-year-old pope during his convalescence in the Vatican by providing round-the-clock care for the pope in his home following his March 23 release from the hospital after 38 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, head of the Gemelli Hospital’s medical team that cared for the pope, said they followed the pope’s clear order, through Strappetti, to “try everything, let’s not give up” during two critical moments when they needed to decide whether to continue or stop treatment.  

Prior to working more closely with the Holy Father as his personal health care assistant, Strappetti was among the medical staff who, in the summer of 2021, advised the pope to undergo testing regarding issues with his colon. On July 4 of that year, the Holy Father underwent a three-hour operation that removed part of his colon. 

Later in 2021, following the colon operation and 11-day hospitalization in Gemelli, Pope Francis praised Strappetti as “a man with a lot of experience” who “saved my life,” in an interview with Spanish radio station COPE.

“Now I can eat everything, which was not possible before with the diverticula. I can eat everything. I still have the postoperative medications, because the brain has to register that it has 33 centimeters [12 inches] less intestine,” the pope quipped in the interview.

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