Pope Leo XIV has affirmed that priests must be celibate. And he has insisted that bishops take "firm and decisive" action to deal with sex abusers. Leo met Wednesday in St. Peter's Basilica with about 400 bishops and cardinals from 38 countries attending this week's special Holy Year celebrations for clergy. He gave them marching orders on what bishops must do to lead their flocks. It's an issue the former Cardinal Robert Prevost would have long pondered given his role as the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops. In that job from 2023 until his election in May, Prevost vetted bishop nominations for Pope Francis, identifying the type of leader who would further Francis' view of a church where all are welcome and dialogue is the decisive form of governance.
Cardinals have wrapped up their pre-conclave meetings before they enter the conclave to elect a new pope. They are trying to identify someone who could follow Pope Francis and make the 2,000-year-old Catholic Church credible and relevant today, especially to young people. The cardinals held their last day of pre-conclave meetings Tuesday morning during which Francis' fisherman's ring and his official seal were destroyed in one of the final formal rites of the transition of his pontificate to the next.
All Vatican personnel involved in supporting the upcoming papal conclave must take an oath of secrecy — under penalty of automatic excommunication. The ceremony on Monday, mandated by Vatican law and revised by Pope Benedict XVI, includes clerics and lay staff alike: cooks, cleaners, doctors, nurses and security officials. Nearly 135 cardinal electors will gather in the Sistine Chapel, beginning on Wednesday, to vote in secret for Pope Francis's successor. The oath, which explicitly forbids recording or disclosing anything from within the conclave, underscores the Church's insistence on confidentiality. Cardinals are bound by their own rules of secrecy. They will take their oaths on Wednesday.
The pope looms so large in everyday Italian life that there are lots of expressions that make light of even a dark event like his death. "A pope dies, they make another," goes one, suggesting how life goes on. His possible successor a matter of intense gossip everywhere, from taxicabs to butchers' shops. Pope Francis' recent bout with pneumonia, which has landed him in the hospital for the fourth time, has fueled more speculation. This time, that's been fueled by the movie "Conclave," which has reminded the world about the arcane rules and spectacular drama involved in a papal election and turned viewers into armchair experts.
Pope Francis has fallen and hurt his right arm. It's the second time in a month that Francis has injured himself after an apparent fall resulted in a bad bruise on his chin. The Vatican spokesman said in a statement Thursday that the pope didn't break his arm but that a sling was put on as a precaution. Francis whacked his chin on his nightstand on Dec. 7 in an apparent fall that resulted in a bad bruise. The 88-year-old pope has battled health problems and often has to use a wheelchair.
