Latest news with #papalvacation
Fox News
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
MORNING GLORY: Pope Leo XIV (and President Trump)
Pope Leo XIV arrived in the papal summer retreat of Castel Gandolfo on Sunday, July 6 to start a six-week vacation, giving the hilltop town back its most illustrious resident after Pope Francis stayed away during his 12-year pontificate. It has been widely reported that Pope Leo will be using part of his vacation to begin drafting his first encyclical. These are important teaching documents for the Roman Catholic Church and sometimes they teach that the current pontiff can be very right, very wrong, very smart or simply not very good at this particular part of his duties. Most Catholics have high hopes for this first missive. Still, who doesn't need editors to help with my suggestions? The new pope has been very measured, calm and careful in the months since his election on May 8. It has to be the most dizzying of ascents and upon arrival as head of the Vatican, a confrontation with the broadest range of problems for any religious leader, and most political ones, on the planet. So Pope Leo taking things slowly and cautiously is a relief. An encyclical is a big deal for practicing Catholics who assume encyclicals are intended to be read, studied, and the occasion of a prayer for discernment. The audience is assumed to be primarily Catholics everywhere, but Pope Leo has to be aware that the secular press —from supportive to hostile— will also be looking the first one over very carefully. Here are some suggestions from an American Catholic his age which means we share a lot of culture, from network television, movies and music to the transition that followed Vatican II. (If Leo had to learn the Mass in Latin in order to be an altar boy only to have that chore tossed out as soon as it was accomplished and replaced with the English script, he will have perfect pitch for millions of Catholic seniors —young and old seniors alike.) When he does begin to do interviews, if he chooses long form sit-downs with respectful journalists, the pope will go a long way to making the promise of his papacy real. Those interviews should focus on the encyclical if one issues before he does his sit-downs with reporters at least a few of whom, American Catholics hope, will be American. Curiosity about a new pope is always acute. It is off the charts about the first American pope. So will curiosity be about the encyclical, which is a reason to hope that it is (1) written in clear, concise English and then translated by the Vatican's best Latin scholars into the official language of the Church and (2) relatively short. If the pope writes in English, not only will he be using his native tongue and thus be as certain as he can be that he's conveying his meaning, it will be a huge hit with the English-speaking peoples of the world, especially the Americans, especially Midwesterners, and most especially Chicagoland Catholics. Some inside baseball phrases for Americans would be a nice touch. The more concise the encyclical, the less susceptible it is to misleading excerpts and agenda-driven reporting. Even with the reach of the internet, hundreds of millions of people who have not read it will be told by others what it says and what it means. As with discussions of Supreme Court decisions, the second-hand reports are usually at best incomplete and at worst intentionally misleading. In this new age of AI-driven deep fakes, don't be surprised if subtlety-altered encyclicals instantly appear. The Vatican press office might want to assure that the real deal has arrows pointing to it. Simultaneous distribution to many of the world's major outlets would be another guardrail. So in English and relatively concise. I hope as well that it is not overtly political in the sense of the left-right spectrum that dominates most of the West where Leo's letter will not be subject to suppression. If he encourages religious liberty, great! If he speaks to the need to care for life from conception to natural death, great! If he wants to encourage the flock to read and reflect on the Beatitudes, great! If he wants to encourage Catholics to renew their commitment to the confessional, bravo! (The decline in the practice of this Catholic sacrament is pronounced, but its revival would have to begin with the direction to bishops and priests to make it a priority above all but the other Sacraments. Pope Leo XIV could even begin with an appeal for vocations to the religious life which are needed everywhere, but especially in his homeland. But pray he has already decided he's not going to do immigration and especially that he's not going to disparage capitalism or America as his predecessor was fond of intimating. Catholics believe the Church is divinely ordained and can never fail. But it can and frequently does stumble. The road back from a divided and disillusioned Church in America begins with finding the good in the United States and praising it. Now that would be a welcome change from the past dozen years. And please, nothing about President Trump. Read the room Pope Leo, please. You don't need to single out the president. Lots of Catholic commentators like to do so. You don't have to. At all. Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives America home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel's news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
The Independent
06-07-2025
- The Independent
Pope aims to restore 'body and spirit' during vacation that brings a pontiff back to Castel Gandolfo
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday heads to the papal summer residence for a six-week vacation, giving the hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo back its most illustrious resident after Pope Francis stayed away during his 12-year pontificate. Leo bid farewell to Rome during his Sunday noon blessing, saying he was taking a 'brief period of rest.' 'I hope everyone can have some vacation time to restore the body and spirit,' Leo said from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square. The 69-year-old Chicago native is resuming the papal tradition of leaving the Vatican for the hot summer months in favor of the relatively cooler climes of the Alban Hills, south of Rome. The area has been a favorite getaway for Roman rulers since the time of the Emperor Domitian in the first century. It's Leo's first break after a frenetic few weeks of inaugural audiences, outings and Holy Year celebrations following his May 8 election as history's first American pope. He'll have a handful of public events while on holiday — Masses, Sunday noon prayers and even some events back at the Vatican — but officials expect he will use the time to read in on key issues facing his new pontificate. Pope Urban VIII built the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo in 1624 to give popes an escape from Rome. It was enlarged over succeeding pontificates to its present size of 55 hectares (136 acres), bigger than Vatican City itself. On the grounds are a working farm, manicured gardens, an observatory run by Jesuit astronomers and, more recently, an environmental educational center inspired by Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be). Popes past used it regularly in summer, drawing huge crowds of pilgrims who would come on Sundays to hear his noon blessing, which was delivered inside the inner courtyard of the palace. Pope Benedict XVI famously closed out his papacy in the estate on Feb. 28, 2013. But Francis, a homebody who never took a proper vacation during his 12-year pontificate, decided to remain in Rome in summer. So for Castel Gandolfo, Leo's vacation is a welcome return. The town suffered an initial economic hit from pope-free summers when Francis opted for staycations, but once he turned the papal palace and gardens into a year-round museum that ended up benefiting the town even more, shopkeepers say. 'He made access to these structures possible, which no pope ever did in 400 years,' said Simone Mariani, who runs a restaurant in town that benefited from the steady flow of tourists much more than the summer-only Sunday crowds of the past. 'He brought tourism that was good for the whole town.' But that didn't make up for the emotional loss felt in a town whose rhythms for generations revolved around regular papal visits. When the pope arrived, the palace doors would open, the Swiss Guards would stand at attention and the town would come to life, said Patrizia Gasperini, whose family runs a souvenir shop on the main piazza a few steps from the palace front door. 'All year, we'd miss the color, the movement, but we knew when summer came he would return,' she said. 'So when Pope Francis decided not to come, we were upset on an emotional level, beyond the economic level.' Mayor Alberto De Angelis said he hopes Leo will decide to use Castel Gandolfo not just for summer breaks, but for periodic vacations during the rest of the year, as St. John Paul II often did. There is also a tradition of popes using their time at Castel Gandolfo to draft important church documents and encyclicals, and De Angelis said he hopes Leo follows in that tradition. 'We hope Pope Leo produces some text, some encyclical here that has a global reach,' he said. 'And then to say that it came from Castel Gandolfo, that he was inspired and produced this text from here for the whole world.' ___ Stellacci reported from Castel Gandolfo, Italy. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
CNN
06-07-2025
- CNN
See where Pope Leo XIV is going on vacation
Pope Leo XIV will resume the papal vacation tradition by taking two weeks off at Castel Gandolfo, the hilltop town a dozen or so miles southeast of Rome, which popes for centuries used as their summer retreat. CNN's Christopher Lamb takes a closer look at the papal holiday tradition.
CNN
06-07-2025
- CNN
See where Pope Leo XIV is going on vacation
Pope Leo XIV will resume the papal vacation tradition by taking two weeks off at Castel Gandolfo, the hilltop town a dozen or so miles southeast of Rome, which popes for centuries used as their summer retreat. CNN's Christopher Lamb takes a closer look at the papal holiday tradition.
CNN
06-07-2025
- CNN
See where Pope Leo XIV is going on vacation
Pope Leo XIV will resume the papal vacation tradition by taking two weeks off at Castel Gandolfo, the hilltop town a dozen or so miles southeast of Rome, which popes for centuries used as their summer retreat. CNN's Christopher Lamb takes a closer look at the papal holiday tradition.
