Inside The Vatican America Media

The Vatican has rejected the six-centuries-old “Doctrine of Discovery” that helped justify the occupation and takeover of Indigenous Peoples’ lands throughout colonial times, and still today forms the basis of property law in many parts of the world. In the U.S. and Canada, the doctrine has also been used to defend the unjust acquisition of land in legal disputes in their Supreme Courts. The decision by the Vatican comes after Pope Francis made a historic long-awaited and promised apology for the Catholic Church’s involvement in the operation of residential schools and the abuses perpetrated in this system of education for more than a century by clergy and consecrated religious men and women.
For more background, analysis, and developments on the doctrine of discovery and its impact over the centuries, please visit americamagazine.org. We also have an Inside the Vatican Deep Dive on the Pope’s visit to Indigenous Peoples in Canada last year and a video explainer on our Youtube channel.
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“Balenciaga Pope!” That is what the internet is calling it. 
Photos of Pope Francis wearing a luxury oversized, white puffer jacket, that sells for anywhere up to $6,000, went viral this weekend. 
A single tweet of the pope’s updated winter wardrobe invited 25,000 retweets, and Google Trends reported a dramatic increase in pope-related searches. 
But, however realistic and convincing the photo might have appeared, it was a total fake, generated using an artificial intelligence platform. 
On “Inside the Vatican,” this week co-hosts Ricardo da Silva, S.J. and Gerard O’Connell, look at why some tech bosses are turning to the Vatican for moral guidance as new and evermore sophisticated waves of artificial intelligence take hold.
“What is the moral position on A.I.?”, Ricardo asks. “Has the Vatican said anything about the rapidly growing sophistication of algorithms and artificial intelligence, and the frightening capacity they have to deceive us?”
Later in the show, we parse the revised “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” Pope Francis’ landmark instruction on the Vatican's procedural norms for dealing with the scourge of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church which goes into effect next month. 
Until now, the instruction had been issued on an experimental three-year basis. On April 30, it will be promulgated definitively into official church law.
Most of the document has remained the same but there are a few important changes, among them the fact that leaders of international lay movements can now be disciplined under church law for abuses committed against those in their care, and those to whom they minister
“This is a work in progress,” Gerry says. “Nobody says the law as issued now is the final word. We may find that in another two years, Francis may well make another amendment to this law.”

Links from the show:
The Vatican is worried about artificial intelligence
Should we be worried about A.I.? Theologians, philosophers and Catholic thinkers weigh in
Pope Francis confirms ‘vulnerable adults’ are covered by updated Vatican sex abuse law
Pope Francis tells bishops of Latin America, where new sex abuse protections aren’t in place, to make it a priority
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Pope Francis has been admitted to hospital where he is undergoing treatment for a respiratory infection. 
The pope was taken to hospital by ambulance today, Wednesday, Mar 29, after he complained that he was experiencing chest pains following the celebration of the Angelus at midday in St. Peter’s Square. 
According to sources at the Vatican, Massimiliano Strappetti, the pope’s personal health care assistant decided to call the ambulance, which took him to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome where he was taken immediately to the cardiac unit for examination. 
But, following further examination and tests, including a test that ruled out a Covid-19 infection, Matteo Bruni, the director of the Vatican press office, issued a statement confirming that Pope Francis was experiencing a respiratory infection and would undergo some days of treatment in hospital. 

Hans Zollner, S.J, who has speerheaded the Vatican’s response to the sexual abuse crisis within its own ranks has resigned from his position on the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors.
Father Zollner, a psychologist and leading expert in the protection of minors and vulnerable adults, said that his resignation has arisen because, quote, “I have noticed issues that need to be urgently addressed and which have made it impossible for me to continue further.”
He went on to cite specific concern for how the commission had gone about achieving its goals, “over some years now” he said, with respect to quote “responsibility, compliance, accountability and transparency.”  And he questioned the selection process of the commission’s members, financial accountability and transparency in its decision-making. 

Read more:
Pope Francis will remain in hospital for several days with respiratory infection
Jesuit sex abuse expert Hans Zollner resigns from papal commission over ‘urgent concerns’



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On July 27, 2021, a trial began inside the Vatican Museums before a bench of three judges of the Vatican City State’s court. Now, more than 600 days since arguments began in the specially remodeled Vatican rooms, the trial continues.
At the center of the trial is Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the substitute for General Affairs at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State from 2011-18, the equivalent of the Vatican’s chief of staff. He is being tried for embezzlement and abuse of his office. The cardinal is also the highest-ever prelate to be tried by the tribunal since Pope Francis changed the Vatican’s rules in April 2021 to allow bishops and cardinals to stand trial in civil and criminal matters. 
Cardinal Becciu was effectively responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Holy See for 7 years, before he was appointed prefect of the then-Congregation for the Causes of Saints, before he suddenly resigned from that role and relinquished his privileges as cardinal, which include the right to vote in any future conclave. 
The trial principally investigates the controversial $225 million purchase of an investment property in Chelsea, London, which is one of the wealthiest districts in the world. It is alleged the property was paid for, in part, using funds collected from Peter’s Pence, a Vatican fund intended to help the church in its various needs across the world, especially in its outreach and relief to the most materially impoverished people and places. 
This week on “Inside the Vatican,” co-hosts Ricardo da Silva, S.J., and Gerard O’Connell discuss the most recent happenings at the Vatican’s mega-trial of the century and what has surfaced from the testimony of key witnesses. In the second half of the show, the hosts look at allegations arising from a new documentary on Polish television which alleges that when Pope John Paul II was archbishop of Krakow he knew of and covered up allegations of the sexual abuse of minors by three priests under his care.  

Related links:
Top Vatican official says London property deal was a double ‘Via Crucis’
John Paul II knew of and concealed child sex abuse as archbishop, Polish TV reports
In a historic first, a cardinal stood trial at the Vatican over involvement in a real estate scandal
The biggest criminal trial in modern Vatican history begins tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know.
Powerful Vatican Cardinal Becciu resigns amid financial scandal
Cardinals and bishops to lose special legal privileges under new papal decree
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President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua suspended diplomatic ties with the Vatican over the weekend in what appears to be retaliation for the pope’s strong public criticisms on March 10 of his “rude dictatorship,” likening it to “a communist dictatorship in 1917, or a Hitlerian one in 1935.” These comments were made by the pope in an interview with Infobae, an Argentine news outlet. “I have no other choice,” the pope said, “but to think that the person in power is mentally unbalanced.” 
On “Inside the Vatican” this week, host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell are joined by senior editor Kevin Clarke to discuss the ongoing conflict between the Nicaraguan president and the Holy See. 
“There are so few independent voices left within Nicaragua,” Kevin says on the podcast. “Thousands of non-governmental organizations have been shut down. The independent press is essentially acting in exile to cover political developments in Nicaragua. The last man standing was the Catholic Church.”
Later on, Ricardo and Gerry discuss another interview Pope Francis gave last week. In the interview with Elisabetta Piqué, who is Gerry’s wife and a Rome-based correspondent for La Nacion, the Argentine news outlet, the pope again criticized the ongoing war in Ukraine, stopping short of labeling the wanton killings there a genocide, he also condemned what he called “the ideological colonization of gender,” and announced “everyone will have the right to vote” at the upcoming “Synod on Synodality,” settling a long-held question as to whether women would be allowed to vote for the first time in a church synod. The revelation has taken even senior Vatican officials by surprise.
In celebration of Pope Francis’ first decade at the helm of the Catholic Church, Ricardo and Gerry close the show sharing their abiding sense of Pope Francis. For Gerry, who has known the pope for 18 years, “this man is a pastor,” he says. “I have seen this at a very personal level, at a level of the family, but I see it also at the level of the leader of the Catholic Church in relation to Catholics, [and] in relation also to the people of the world.”
“The phrase that he uses over and over is a ‘culture of encounter,’” Ricardo says. “He’s somebody who is constantly trying to read where people are at, what people are struggling with, what people are talking about. Not shutting down conversations, but also not scared to say what he thinks in all of this.”
Please consider supporting Inside the Vatican by purchasing a digital subscription to America at www.americamag.org/subscribe.
Related links:

Nicaragua proposes cutting Vatican ties after Pope Francis compared Ortega regime to Hitler

With a ‘sham trial’ of a Nicaraguan bishop about to begin, a clampdown on the nation’s Catholic Church continues

Asked if Putin is committing genocide in Ukraine, Pope Francis doesn’t say no

Pope Francis denounces imprisonment of Nicaragua’s Bishop Rolando Álvarez

With a ‘sham trial’ of a Nicaraguan bishop about to begin, a clampdown on the nation’s Catholic Church continues

Pope Francis says ‘ideology of gender’ is ‘dangerous’ and that ‘everyone’ will vote in the Synod, in new interview with La Nacion

Why can’t women vote at the Synod on Young People?

Video: Top 10 moments of Pope Francis


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In 2013, Pope Francis hit the ground running. He wanted a poor church for the poor; a church that gave a voice to those living on the margins, especially migrants and refugees. He put ecology and care for creation at the center of the church’s work. Inside the church, attitudes had to change. Authority had to be exercised as service. Everything had to be geared toward the mission of the church to evangelize. He denounced clericalism, called for a synodal church that listens first, and encourages all the baptized to speak their minds.
10 years later, all of this has provoked heated debates in the Catholic Church. Everyone has an opinion about the direction Francis has led his flock. In this special deep dive episode for Francis’ 10th anniversary of election, we’re exploring key themes of the Francis papacy that have sparked intense fear, unexpected joy and furious debate among the faithful. 
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