BREAKING:​ Pope Francis Dies At 88, Vatican Announces

From thegatewaypundit.com and written by Jim Hᴏft Apr. 21, 2025 3:03 am BREAKING:​ Pope Francis Dies at 88, Vatican Announces | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft

US Vice President JD Vance meeting Pope Francis at the Casa Santa Marta a day before his death (Credit: Vatican)

"Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio), the first Latin American pontiff, passed away Monday morning at the age of 88.

The Vatican’s Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, announced that the Pope died at 7:35 AM in Vatican City.

“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” Farrell said in a statement.

“His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”

In February, Francis, long criticized by conservatives for steering the Church into left-wing political activism rather than defending tradition and morality, began suffering from a serious respiratory infection, which has now developed into double pneumonia—an aggressive infection that inflames both lungs.

A Vatican statement confirmed that the pope underwent a chest CAT scan, revealing the onset of double pneumonia.

The statement added, “polymicrobial infection, which has arisen in the context of bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and has required the use of corticosteroid and antibiotics, makes the therapeutic treatment more complex.”

“A follow-up chest CT scan, to which the Holy Father was subjected this afternoon—prescribed by the Vatican medical team and the medical staff of the “A. Gemelli” Polyclinic Foundation—revealed the onset of bilateral pneumonia, requiring additional pharmacological therapy.”

“Nevertheless,” the press release adds, “Pope Francis remains in good spirits.”

Previous reports indicate that Pope Francis himself is deeply worried about his survival.

RadarOnline.com reveals that the 88-year-old pontiff has reportedly informed his aides that he “won’t survive” and is “preparing for death” while he battles pneumonia in the hospital.

Doctor Alfieri, head of his medical team revealed yesterday (25) that Francis came to be so close to death at certain point that doctors considered ending his pneumonia treatment so he could just die in peace.

“The doctor said it was the pope’s personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, who urged the medical team to keep up the treatment in the wake of the vomiting episode.”

After a grueling battle against double pneumonia and a bout of kidney failure in the hospital for 38 days, Pope Francis returned to the Vatican in March.

The doctors have warned that it will still take a long time for Francis to fully heal.

The Pope was prescribed another two months of rest at the Vatican, and he is to avoid large or stressful meetings.

In his brief balcony appearance, Francis’ face ‘looked swollen’, but he was not using oxygen and was breathing on his own.

According to Vatican News, in 1957, while in his early 20s, Jorge Mario Bergoglio underwent surgery in his native Argentina to remove part of his lung following a severe respiratory infection.

As he aged, Pope Francis continued to experience recurring respiratory issues, including a bout of influenza and lung inflammation that forced him to cancel a scheduled visit to the United Arab Emirates in November 2023.

On Easter Sunday morning, just a day before his death, Pope Francis held a brief private meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Casa Santa Marta shortly after 11:30 a.m.

According to the Holy See Press Office, the meeting lasted only a few minutes and served as an opportunity to exchange Easter greetings.

The Vatican has released the second edition of the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, introducing significant changes to the funeral rites of a pope, “including how the Pope’s mortal remains are to be handled after death.”

Among the most notable updates is a new procedure for confirming the death of the Holy Father, which now takes place in a chapel rather than the room where he passed. The Pope’s body is immediately placed in the coffin following this ritual.

Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Master of Apostolic Ceremonies, emphasized that Pope Francis had requested a simplified funeral that centered on the Church’s faith in the Resurrection of Christ.

“The renewed rite,” said Archbishop Ravelli, “seeks to emphasise even more that the funeral of the Roman Pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world.”

According to reports, the Conclave—where cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican to elect a new pope—will not take place for at least 15 days."

This story has been updated with additional information.

Jim Hᴏft

Jim Hᴏft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

You can email Jim Hᴏft here, and read more of Jim Hᴏft's articles here.

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Pray that God will have mercy on the soul of Francis as he went to his Particular Judgment!

Viva Cristo Rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...

St.  Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

St. Joseph pray for us!!

Gene DeLalla 

BREAKING: Pope Francis Has Died Aged 88!!!

 

BREAKING: Pope Francis has died aged 88

From lifesitenews.com...

"Pope Francis' reign in the papal throne spanned more than a decade, and witnessed the spread of widespread confusion on numerous matters of the Catholic faith."

---

Pray for the repose of the soul of the Bishop of Rome, Bergoglio!

Viva Cristo Rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

St. Joseph pray for us!!

Gene DeLalla 

The Apostasy And Madness Continues: LGBT Group Praises Cardinal For Inclusion In Holy Thursday Liturgy: ‘Historic Significance’!!

 Prelates, choose your allegiance: Christ or Satan!

It has become painfully obvious that far too many of the hierarchy have chosen Satan as their master and kicked Our Lord out of their lives, hearts and souls for power, position and recognition from those worldly bad actors who live in contradiction to the Natural Law and the Ten Commandments! 

It seems that the sin that caused fire and brimstone to rain down from Heaven and obliterated Sodom and Gomorrah, is being embraced by the newly minted "Cardinal" Domenico Battaglia of Naples, Italy.

This is another example of the error, heresies, scandal and confusion perpetrated by such lost souls, leading other lost souls to eternal perdition, instead of admonishing them to amend their lives and get them into a state of grace before they are called to their Particular Judgment!

These prelates are not Catholic, period!

Here is the very disturbing article from lifesitenews.com and written by Michael Haynes, Snr. Vatican Correspondent: LGBT group praises cardinal for inclusion in Holy Thursday liturgy: 'Historic significance' - LifeSite Thu Apr 17, 2025 - 10:48 am EDT

'NAPLES, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — The new cardinal of Naples will wash the feet of a prominent LGBT activist during Maundy Thursday liturgy this year, in a move hailed as support for the LGBT lifestyle by activists.

As highlighted by Messa in Latino, the newly minted cardinal of Naples, Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, will include a prominent LGBT activist in the Maundy Thursday Mandatum ceremony of foot-washing today.

One of the twelve individuals who will form part of the ceremony is Carlo Cremona, who serves as “president of IKen LGBT Napoli, homosexual activist, creator of Questa Casa Nonè UnAlbergo and of the Sportelli Rainbow Center Napoli.”

Breaking the news on Facebook, the IKen LGBT group wrote that Cremona’s being included in the ceremony “is a concrete sign of a Church that recognizes and loves people in truth.”

The LGBT group added:

It is a powerful gesture, capable of bringing hope to those who have been excluded. Everyone is invited to participate in this moment of faith and fraternity, which is certainly of historic significance.

Love is never wrong when it comes from respect and truth about oneself.

Included in the social media post were the slogans “inclusive church” and “LGBT rights.”

While the group argued that their inclusion was a sign of the Church that “loves people in truth,” the Catholic Church condemns the homosexual and transgender lifestyle.

The Catechism teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” The text is very clear that homosexual activity can never be approved, and repeats that “[h]omosexual persons are called to chastity.”

Under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a document instructing bishops on the pastoral care of homosexual persons. The CDF admonished bishops to ensure they, and any “pastoral programme” in the diocese, are “clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral.”

Prior to this, the CDF had issued a 1975 document, Persona Humana, which warned against the tenets of the modern transgender movement, stating “there can be no true promotion of man’s dignity unless the essential order of his nature is respected.”

The Church also teaches that God creates every individual male or female at the moment of his or her conception, and that sex is an immutable trait that “characterizes man and woman not only on the physical level, but also on the psychological and spiritual, making its mark on each of their expressions.”

Catholic teaching condemns mutilation and sterilization as “against the moral law” and denounces gender ideology.

Battaglia has led the Archdiocese of Naples since December 2020 and was created cardinal by Pope Francis in December 2024.

The Mandatum ceremony on Maundy Thursday, which he and numerous other Catholic clergy perform today, is done after the manner of Christ’s washing the feet of the twelve apostles at the Last Supper, and twelve individuals are chosen in representation of the apostles.

Over the centuries the tradition developed in Rome that the Pope would wash the feet of twelve clerics, followed then by twelve of the city’s poor. The ceremony was always limited to men – in imitation of the apostles – but in 2016 Pope Francis officially altered the Church’s liturgy to allow for washing women’s feet at the Holy Thursday.

While local practice beforehand had illegally included the washing of women’s feet during the Maundy Thursday Mandatum, the Pope’s 2016 decree formally instituted the custom. Francis wrote to Cardinal Sarah, saying the formal change was made with “the intention of improving the manner in which it is carried out, so that it fully expresses the meaning of the gesture performed by Jesus in the Upper Room, his giving of himself ‘to the end’ for the salvation of the world, his charity without boundaries.”

Francis had garnered headlines from the beginning of his pontificate by washing the feet of women and Muslims, and last year was the first time that all twelve individuals were women.

However, the Mandatum has rapidly become seen as a political stage as much as a liturgical rite – an aspect made clear by the response of the IKen LGBT group to its president’s inclusion in Cardinal Battaglia’s ceremony today."

End of article...

Of course, these bad actors feel very emboldened by the Bishop or Rome, Bergoglio, and his scandalous antics and heresies over the last 12 years.

You would think that after being so close to death, he, Bergoglio, would have had an epiphany and return to the Catholic Faith, but that didn't happen... 

When will all this end??

Pray for strength and honor!

Viva Cristo Rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

St. Joseph pray for us!!

Gene DeLalla 

Report: More Young Americans Finding A Home In Catholicism

 Interesting!

I would venture to say that the Mass most mentioned in this article is the TLM, though not specifically spelled out...

Also, what a time for such info to come to light: Easter!

Here is the article from breitbart.com and written by Paul Bois 18 Apr 2025

Report: More Young Americans Finding a Home in Catholicism

"A new report suggests the internet, reverence of the Holy Mass, and other factors have been driving young Americans toward Catholicism.

A lengthy profile in the New York Post explored this new phenomenon among young Americans, with some dioceses even seeing 30 percent to 70 percent increase in new converts.

According to the National Catholic Register, some dioceses are reporting year-over-year increases of 30% to 70% in new converts. The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, for instance, experienced a 72% jump in converts just from 2023 to 2024.

The Post spoke to several young new Catholics who cite the pandemic, the internet and a distaste for “lax” Protestant alternatives as reasons for turning to the faith.

Sydney Johnston, a 30-year-old Upper West Side millennial, transitioned from a nondenominational Christian upbringing to devout Catholicism, finding the rituals and ancient history of the Catholic Mass profoundly beautiful.

“There’s just something so beautiful and transcendent about the rituals and the ancient history in the Catholic Mass that’s been preserved,” Johnston told The Post. “The church really communicates a degree of reverence that I didn’t find in the more liberal, laissez-faire approach of nondenominational churches.”

 A native of Orange County, California, Johnston said her protestant faith felt too much “like a cultural experience than something that was really rooted in history with a deep theological foundation.”

She turned away from the church entirely and lived her life as a workaholic for several years until the pandemic forced her to deal with questions about Christianity she often avoided.

“I had this question on my mind, like, do I feel God here? Does this feel like a holy place? And so I really paid attention to the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the services,” she said. “And I ultimately just felt myself most drawn to the Catholic Mass.”

The Rev. Raymond Maria La Grange of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer told The Post that most converts tend to be in their 20s or early 30s and that his parish grew after the pandemic.

“Some were Protestants, some were nonreligious, some were Catholics who never practiced the faith. Both men and women,” he said. “Some well-off, others living day to day. Some are intellectuals, some are mystics. Some got to know Catholics who brought them in, others came in on their own and hardly know any Catholics.”

“It is a fun time to be a priest. It’s busy, in a good way,” La Grange added.

Other Catholics like Adrian Lawson found the faith through the internet after going from being nondenominational to atheism to evangelicalism in his early 20s.

“I was wrestling with mental illness and the meaning of life, and those are questions that I could not answer without religion,” he said. “My mental health improved very quickly, and church showed me a different way of looking at life. I just became less self-centered, and that made me a lot happier.”

Lawson moved Catholicism after witnessing an online debate between a Catholic and a Protestant creator, Cameron Bertuzzi, about church history.  Bertuzzi’s public conversion after the debate inspired many to convert. He credits regular rosary prayers with alleviating his anxiety and depression. As a catechist, Lawson observes a 50 percent annual increase in converts, many young and drawn to the Church’s tradition and community.

Others come from non-Christian backgrounds. Marin Minamiya, a 28-year-old from Austin raised in Japan’s Shinto faith, converted in December 2024 while studying at Columbia.

“I think being Catholic inevitably makes one have a positive outlook on life because God is good,” said Minamiya. “It gives me a lot of confidence, and it gives me a lot of support through the Catholic community to become a better person and a virtuous person.”

Similarly, Taylor New, a 27-year-old from Cincinnati, was an active evangelical when a YouTube video on Catholic history sparked her conversion journey. “I decided to watch it, not thinking much of it — but I joke that that video ruined my life in the best way, because that set me on my spiral of research,” New told The Post.

Despite initial resistance due to her tight-knit church community, extensive research led her to convert in 2024, crediting the internet’s wealth of resources for guiding young seekers toward Catholicism.

“It was something that I didn’t want to do. I begged God to not make me Catholic,” she said. “I found a lot of support in my church, just because I didn’t have a super-tight-knit family at home.”

Young converts often cite dissatisfaction with the perceived laxity of Protestant churches and a search for purpose and moral order. La Grange theorized that the world has failed to provide young people with a moral order, leaving them “unmoored.”

“I’d say the most common impetus of the young is that they realize the world cannot provide them with any moral order, or reasons for living in any particular way. A culture of license has left them unmoored,” he said."'

Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.

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Pray for strength and honor!

Viva Cristo Rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

St. Joseph pray for us!!

Gene DeLalla