World News
Flocks of faithful at St. Peter’s Basilica to greet Benedict XVI
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Steph Deschamps / January 2, 2023
Thousands of faithful marched Monday under the gold of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to gather in front of the remains of Benedict XVI, who died Saturday at age 95 and whose funeral will be celebrated Thursday by Pope Francis.
A long line of people have been waiting since dawn in St. Peter’s Square, surrounded by Bernini’s colonnade, in the presence of many media and a thousand members of the police force.
“It seemed normal to come and pay homage to him after all he has done for the Church,” Sister Anna-Maria, an Italian nun, told AFP.
He was a great pope, profound and unique,” said Francesca Gabrielli, who came especially from Tuscany, and who appreciates the “atmosphere of recollection” in the basilica.
The remains of Joseph Ratzinger rest on a catafalque stretched with fabric, surrounded by two Swiss guards in ceremonial dress, in front of the main altar of the basilica dominated by a bronze canopy with twisted colonnades.
The deceased pope is dressed in red – the color of papal mourning – and wearing a white miter with a golden girdle, a rosary and a crucifix in his hands.
After passing through a security gate, worshippers and tourists enter the central aisle of the world’s largest church, most taking pictures of the former pope’s body with their smartphones. Some pray or make the sign of the cross.
Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was among the first visitors.
St. Peter’s Basilica, a masterpiece of Renaissance and Baroque architecture completed in 1626, is one of the most important places in Christianity, as it houses the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle, disciple of Christ and first bishop of Rome, whose successors are the popes.
A brilliant theologian and fervent guardian of dogma, Benedict XVI, who gave up his office in 2013 due to declining strength, passed away peacefully Saturday morningat the monastery where he had been living since then, located in the heart of the Vatican gardens.
Early Monday, his body was transferred to the basilica where a blessing ritual was held, in the presence of his close entourage, including the private secretary of the pope emeritus, Mgr Georg Gänswein.
It is Pope Francis who will preside over the funeral of his predecessor on Thursday, an unprecedented event in the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church that will put an end to the unusual cohabitation of the two men in white.
The ceremony, “solemn but sober” according to the Vatican, will be held from 09:30 in St. Peter’s Square, where the funeral of John Paul II had attracted one million people in 2005.
The first German pope in modern history will then be buried in the crypt of the basilica where John Paul II rested until 2011, said Monday the spokesman for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
The last words of Benedict XVI, pronounced in Italian a few hours before his death on Saturday in the presence of a nurse at his bedside, were: “Lord, I love you”, reported Archbishop Gänswein.
After eight years of a pontificate marked by multiple crises, Benedict XVI was caught up in early 2022 by the drama of pedocriminality in the Church. Questioned by a report in Germany on his management of sexual violence when he was Archbishop of Munich, he came out of his silence to ask for “forgiveness” but assured that he had never covered up for a pedocriminal.
A subject raised by Valerie Michalak, a German woman who came with her husband and their four children, originally from Dortmund, as they left the basilica: “We know that he knew certain details and he did not help to open the Pandora’s box,” she regrets.
Born in 1927, Joseph Ratzinger taught theology for 25 years in Germany before being named Archbishop of Munich.
He then became the Church’s strict guardian of dogma for another quarter century in Rome as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The last pope to participate in the Second Vatican Council, he nevertheless defended a conservative line at the head of the Church, notably on abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
World News
Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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