ROME: Pope Francis said in a letter published Tuesday that his lengthy illness has helped make “more lucid” to him the absurdity of war, as his top deputy rejected any suggestion of resignation and Buckingham Palace announced plans for an upcoming audience with Britain’s King Charles III.
Italian daily Corriere della Sera published a letter to the editor from Francis, signed and dated March 14 from Rome’s Gemelli hospital where the 88-year-old pontiff has been treated since Feb. 14 for a complex lung infection and double pneumonia.
In it, Francis renewed his call for diplomacy and international organizations to find a “new vitality and credibility.” And he said that his own illness had also helped make some things clearer to him, including the “absurdity of war.”
“Human fragility has the power to make us more lucid about what endures and what passes, what brings life and what kills,” he wrote.
Responding to a letter from the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Luciano Fontana, Francis also urged him and all those in the media to “feel the full importance of words.”
“They are never just words: they are facts that shape human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it for other ends,” he wrote. “We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth.”
The letter was published as Francis registered slight improvements in his treatment and as the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, shot down any suggestion the pope might resign.
“Absolutely no,” Parolin told journalists on Monday when asked if he and the pope had discussed a resignation. Parolin has visited Francis twice during his hospitalization, most recently on March 2, and said he found Francis better than during his first Feb. 25 visit.
Also on Tuesday, Francis received a standing ovation from the Italian Senate, after Premier Giorgia Meloni sent her greetings and said “not just this chamber, but all of the Italian people″ wish the pope a full recovery “as soon as possible.”
Meloni, who was the first outsider to visit the pope after he was hospitalized, said that “even in a trying moment, his strength and guidance have been felt.”
Francis for the second day spent some time off high flows of oxygen and used just ordinary supplemental oxygen delivered by a nasal tube, the Holy See press office said Tuesday. In addition, for the first time in several weeks he didn’t use the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask at night at all, to force his lungs to work more.
While those amount to “slight improvements,” the Vatican isn’t yet providing any timetable on when he might be released. That said, Buckingham Palace announced Monday that King Charles III was scheduled to meet with Francis on April 8 at the Vatican, assuming he is back and well enough.
Such state visits are always closely organized with Parolin’s office. However, the Vatican press office on Tuesday declined to confirm the visit, noting that the Holy See only confirms papal audiences shortly before they happen.
The developments came as the Vatican released some details on the first photograph of Francis released since his hospitalization. The image, taken Sunday from behind, showed Francis sitting in his wheelchair in his private chapel in prayer without any sign of nasal tubes.
The photo, showing Francis wearing a Lenten purple stole, followed an audio message the pope recorded March 6 in which he thanked people for their prayers, his voice soft and labored.
Together, they suggested Francis is very much controlling how the public follows his illness to prevent it from turning into a spectacle. While many in the Vatican have held up St. John Paul II’s long and public battle with Parkinson’s disease and other ailments as a humble sign of his willingness to show his frailties, others criticized it as excessive and glorifying sickness.
The image certainly reassured some well-wishers who came to Gemelli to pray for Francis, who is recovering in the 10th-floor papal suite reserved for popes.
“After a month of hospitalization, finally a photo that can assure us that his health conditions are better,” said the Rev. Enrico Antonio, a priest from Pescara.
But Benedetta Flagiello of Naples, who was visiting her sister at Gemelli, wondered if the photo was even real.
“Because if the pope can sit for a moment without a mask, without anything, why didn’t he look out the window on the 10th floor to be seen by everyone?” she asked. “If you remember our old pope (John Paul II), he couldn’t speak up, but he showed up.”
Pope pens letter to the editor while in hospital as Buckingham Palace announces King Charles’ visit
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Pope pens letter to the editor while in hospital as Buckingham Palace announces King Charles’ visit
- Italian daily Corriere della Sera published a letter to the editor from Francis, signed and dated March 14 from Rome’s Gemelli hospital
Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders unite to counter Trump administration’s agenda
- Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York, caucus chair, lamented the concerted effort to roll back civil rights underlying voting access and dismantling of social programs
- Civil rights leaders and Democratic lawmakers have already filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration’s anti-DEI policies
WASHINGTON: The Congressional Black Caucus and major civil rights groups on Tuesday marked Black History Month by relaunching a national plan to mobilize against what they say are the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken legal protections for minority communities.
The assembled leaders voiced outrage over the series of policy actions President Donald Trump has implemented since his return to the White House, as well as the president’s personal conduct, but offered few concrete details about what they’re prepared to do in response to the administration.
“Over the past year, we have seen a concerted effort to roll back civil rights underlying voting access, dismantle social programs and concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy and well-connected, at the expense of our community,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Clarke, who spoke in front of leaders from major civil rights organizations and her Democratic colleagues, promised the caucus would “legislate, organize, mobilize our communities.” The coalition, which spoke privately before the press conference, discussed how to protect voters ahead of the fall midterms and how to build a policy agenda for Democrats should the party win back power in either chamber of Congress next year.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment, and every tool available to the leadership collectively has got to be deployed to get this thing turned around,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told The Associated Press after the press conference.
Jeffries did not rule out mass protests, organizing boycotts and further legal action as potential steps organizers may take.
The leaders’ warnings come at a moment when the Trump administration has continued its crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion across the US government, in higher education and the private sector.
At the start of his second term, Trump signed multiple executive orders banning the use of “illegal DEI” in government agencies, as well as organizations that interact with the federal government. Trump has threatened to withhold funds from major companies, non-profit groups and state governments as part of the administration’s efforts to upend DEI.
The administration has also sought to redefine the nation’s culture and how history is taught in museums, classrooms and other educational settings. It also prioritized investigating and prosecuting civil rights cases of potential discrimination against white people through both the Justice Department’s civil rights division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, among other agencies.
Civil rights leaders and Democratic lawmakers have already filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration’s anti-DEI policies.
Locked out of power in both chambers of Congress, Democrats have fewer ways to conduct oversight or limit the actions of the Trump administration. And civil rights leaders, who were largely knocked on the back foot by a deluge of policy changes over the last year, are attempting to regroup ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Progressive civil rights leaders, who are broadly unhappy with the administration’s entire agenda, have argued that the president’s agenda on immigration, voting rights, the economy and other issues is exploiting hard-won policies that civil rights leaders had, for decades, used to ensure anti-discrimination and economic advancement for Black communities.
“This is about how this administration is using the tools we built as a Black community to ensure that all of our people are protected,” said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Progressive state leaders and civil rights groups have also stepped up their efforts elsewhere. A coalition of state attorneys general and civil rights groups this month launched a coalition to promote DEI and accessibility policies through more aggressive legal action.
“State attorneys general are in a unique position to defend these fundamental rights, and this campaign will ensure everyone is heard and shielded from those who aim to weaken civil rights,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement on Monday announcing the initiative.
The initiative includes Democratic attorneys general from fourteen states District of Columbia, as well as over a dozen civil rights groups from across the country. The group intends to launch inquiries and file lawsuits across the country into instances where, the leaders argue, organizations may be violating anti-discrimination laws in response to the rollback of DEI policies by major companies and the Trump administration.
The effort faces an uncertain and shifting legal landscape.
Federal courts remain divided over the use of race in hiring and anti-discrimination in the workplace. And the conservative-majority on the Supreme Court has ruled against the use of race in college admissions. Several justices have voiced skepticism about how race and other characteristics can be used by government agencies and private institutions, even if a policy was meant to combat discrimination.
On Tuesday, the assembled civil rights leaders repeatedly acknowledged the uphill battle that their movement faced on multiple fronts. Some said that the administration’s policy decisions may set up stark political battles in the coming years.
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said: “We commit today to fight and fight and fight until hell freezes over, and then, I can assure you, we will fight on the ice.”
