Headlines for April 21, 2025

Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. The Argentinian-born Jesuit had led the Catholic Church since 2013 when he made history by becoming the first pope from Latin America. He made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday when he repeated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying the situation was “dramatic and deplorable.” In November 2023, Pope Francis accused Israel of committing terrorism after Israel attacked a church in Gaza.

Pope Francis: “A mother and her daughter, Ms. Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar Kamal Anton, were killed, and others wounded, by the snipers as they went to the bathroom. The house of Mother Teresa’s nuns was damaged, their generator hit. Some say it’s terrorism. It’s war. Yes, it’s war. It’s terrorism. That is why Scripture says that God stops war, breaks bows and breaks spears. Let us pray to the Lord for peace.”

Pope Francis was also a vocal champion for the poor and marginalized and often spoke out about the climate crisis and against the death penalty.
On Thursday, the pope traveled to a prison in Rome to meet with dozens of prisoners as part of a Holy Thursday ritual. The mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, said today, “Rome, Italy and the world are mourning an extraordinary man, a humble and courageous pastor who knew how to speak to everyone’s heart.”

On Sunday, Pope Francis briefly met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. In February, before he was hospitalized, the pope openly criticized the Trump administration’s attacks on migrants. The pope wrote, “The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.” We will have more on Pope Francis later in the program.