Pope puts Sagrada Familia architect Gaudi on path to sainthood
Pope Francis has approved the first step towards sainthood for Antoni Gaudi, the modernist architect behind Barcelona's "Sagrada Familia" basilica, the Vatican said on Monday.
Pope Francis had inhaled “copious” amounts of mucus in another setback in what has become a more than two-week battle to overcome a complex respiratory infection and pneumonia.
Pope Francis suffered two new episodes of acute respiratory crises Monday and was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said.
Francis had inhaled “copious” amounts of mucus in another setback in what has become a more than two-week battle to overcome a complex respiratory infection and pneumonia.
In a late update, the Vatican said the episodes were caused by a “significant accumulation” of mucus in his lungs and bronchial spasms. “Two bronchoscopies were performed with the need for aspiration of copious secretions,” the Vatican said.
Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel. The prognosis remained guarded.
Earlier Monday, Pope Francis issued a new message from the hospital as Vatican officials begged him to let his voice be heard after disappearing from public view for over two weeks as he recovers.
Francis, 88, denounced the “progressive irrelevance” of international organizations to combat war as he remained at Rome’s Gemelli hospital in stable condition. He was up, had breakfast and was receiving therapies after sleeping “well all night long,” the Vatican said.
The Vatican hasn’t released any photos or videos of Francis since before he entered the hospital on Feb. 14 with a complex lung infection. This has become the longest absence of his 12-year papacy.
The Vatican has provided brief, twice-daily medical updates on his condition, and Francis has begun signing off on documents with “From Gemelli Polyclinic” in an indication that he is up and working.
The Vatican has defended Francis’ decision to recover in peace and out of the public eye. But on Monday one of Francis’ closest friends at the Vatican, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, urged him to let his voice be heard, saying the world needs to hear it.
“We need men like him who are truly universal and not only one-sided,” Paglia said, speaking after a press conference to launch the annual assembly of his Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican’s bioethics academy, which has as this year’s theme “The End of the World?”
Francis wrote a message to the assembly, dated Feb. 26, in which he lamented that international organizations are increasingly ineffective to combat the threats facing the world and are being undermined by “short-sighted attitudes concerned with protecting particular and national interests.”
It’s a theme he has articulated before. Francis also has repeatedly called for peace between Russia and Ukraine while trying to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality, and has tried to achieve a similar balancing act for Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
Even a Vatican ambassador not especially close to Francis, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, said the faithful needed to hear his voice at a time when war is raging in Europe. Gaenswein was Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime secretary, and Francis exiled him to be the Vatican ambassador in the Baltics after he published a memoir in 2023 that was critical of Francis.
“Pope Francis’ voice is of vital importance for all the world because he’s the only authority who speaks of peace, who condemns war, all the wars under way starting with Ukraine,” La Repubblica quoted Gaenswein as saying.
Francis’ 17-night hospitalization is by no means reaching the papal record that was set during St. John Paul II’s numerous lengthy hospitalizations over a quarter century.
The Russian ruble has emerged as the top-performing currency globally in 2025, registering an impressive 38% appreciation against the US dollar since the beginning of the year, according to a report by Bloomberg.
A small plane crashed near Kopake, New York, on April 13, killing at 6 people. The Mitsubishi MU-2B aircraft, carrying six people, went down under unclear circumstances. This marks the second aviation accident in New York in a week, raising safety concerns.
Several regions in Ukraine faced heightened alert on Palm Sunday, as reports of explosions and missile threats drew public attention and official responses.
Severe rainfall on April 17 led to flooding and landslides in the Piedmont region, prompting a large-scale emergency response from over 400 firefighters.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for April 16th, covering the latest developments you need to know.
A mob attack on an Ahmadi place of worship in Karachi has left one man dead, highlighting ongoing persecution of the minority group.
A Russian court has sentenced 19-year-old Darya Kozyreva to nearly three years in prison for protesting the war in Ukraine using poetry and graffiti.
The new U.S. ambassador to Japan has called for closer military coordination with Tokyo, framing the alliance as crucial amid rising regional tensions and ongoing trade disputes.
Students in Serbia have rallied outside a police station as Belgrade University’s rector is questioned over support for anti-government protests.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov extended Moscow’s support for the ongoing indirect nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, offering to mediate or assist in any way that would be beneficial to Tehran and acceptable to Washington.
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