President Donald Trump joked on Tuesday that his first choice to replace the late Pope Francis was &#8230; himself, a crack that was destined to inspire meltdowns from those who hate him the most.
Trump took a few questions from the press outside the White House as he marked the 100th day of his second term in office, and the topic turned to the imminent conclave during which the Catholic Church&#8217;s next leader will be chosen.
&#8220;Who do you want to see as the next Pope?&#8221; a reporter asked.
&#8220;As Pope?&#8221; Trump repeated before quipping, &#8220;I&#8217;d like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.&#8221;
WATCH:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &#8220;I&#8217;d like to be pope.&#8221; 🤣
&#8220;We have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who&#8217;s very good, so we&#8217;ll see what happens.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/WPdRPwHxP9">pic.twitter.com/WPdRPwHxP9</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1917289085938590136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The reporters continued to talk, but were drowned out by the sound of Marine One in the background.
&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t know, I have no preference,&#8221; the president continued. &#8220;I must say we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who&#8217;s very good, so we&#8217;ll see what happens.&#8221;
Trump was likely referring to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, one of ten American cardinals who will participate in the conclave and vote on the next pontiff. Critics say that Dolan is a long shot for the church&#8217;s highest office himself, largely based on the perception that he is too American.
Some took Trump&#8217;s remark as a joke and responded in kind.
&#8220;Make Rome Great Again,&#8221; one said.
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Make Rome Great Again
— Jess Fields (@jessalanfields) <a href="https://twitter.com/jessalanfields/status/1917289220755833208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The Vatican has a chance to do the funniest thing,&#8221; another posted.
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The Vatican has a chance to do the funniest thing <a href="https://t.co/hf271V1EOL">https://t.co/hf271V1EOL</a>
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) <a href="https://twitter.com/capeandcowell/status/1917307476719833388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;You&#8217;re not gonna convince me Trump saying &#8216;I’d like to be pope&#8217; isn’t funny,&#8221; said one.
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Youre not gonna convince me Trump saying “I’d like to be pope” isn’t funny. 
<a href="https://t.co/6eh0qqi05u">pic.twitter.com/6eh0qqi05u</a>
— Timothy HJ Nerozzi (@TimothyNerozzi) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimothyNerozzi/status/1917310456328241166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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One posted before he even made the comment, &#8220;I feel like Donald Trump wearing this white hat is to remind us that the danger of him becoming pope is slim…*but it’s never zero.*&#8221;
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I feel like Donald Trump wearing this white hat is to remind us that the danger of him becoming pope is slim…*but it’s never zero.* <a href="https://t.co/D7RbEsT1V0">pic.twitter.com/D7RbEsT1V0</a>
— Emily Zanotti 🦝 (@emzanotti) <a href="https://twitter.com/emzanotti/status/1916874695795769794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
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But the critics were not amused.
&#8220;I think the prerequisite is &#8216;need to be able to go into a church without bursting into flames,'&#8221; one said.
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I think the prerequisite is &#8220;need to be able to go into a church without bursting into flames&#8221;
— TheGeekReborn (@thegeekreborn) <a href="https://twitter.com/thegeekreborn/status/1917294375803183233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Now he wants to be the next pope, God help us,&#8221; another added.
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Now he wants to be the next pope, God help us. <a href="https://t.co/1VChIzdagI">pic.twitter.com/1VChIzdagI</a>
— 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐊𝐎𝐌𝐒𝐀 | 🇪🇺🇫🇷🇵🇱🇺🇦 (@tweet4Anna_NAFO) <a href="https://twitter.com/tweet4Anna_NAFO/status/1917303304498848022?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Trump. Does. Not. Joke,&#8221; one claimed.
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Trump. Does. Not. Joke.
— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) <a href="https://twitter.com/leftcoastbabe/status/1917289577150308490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Isn&#8217;t he already considered the pope of white evangelicals?&#8221; another asked.
&#8220;Isn’t he already considered the pope of white evangelicals?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Isn’t he already considered the pope of white evangelicals?
— 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢 (@ChidiNwatu) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChidiNwatu/status/1917289977949389247?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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President And Mrs Trump Depart White House For Rome

Cue The Pearl-Clutchers: Trump Just Said He’d ‘Like To Be Pope’

Cue The Pearl-Clutchers: Trump Just Said He'd 'Like To Be Pope'

Catholic Church

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G.K. Chesterton <a href="https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/43811/stfrancisproblem.htm">wrote</a> of St. Francis of Assisi, “But after all, this man was a man and not half a dozen men. What seems inconsistency to you did not seem inconsistency to him.”
We should keep this same principle in mind today as we continue to pray for the repose of Pope Francis’s soul — and assess what we can learn from his legacy, both good and bad.
Much like the great saint whom he chose as his namesake and clearly intended to emulate, Pope Francis confounded caricature and was often misunderstood. In his life, and especially over the course of his pontificate, this quality often led to confusion for the faithful. No doubt, that pattern of confusion will be one hallmark of Francis’s papacy.
If we hope to learn from the life of Pope Francis, however, we must start by rejecting the mainstream media’s depiction of him as a “liberal” pope. Since his death, the New York Times has been filled with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/opinion/pope-francis-gay-muddle.html'" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headlines</a> regarding his perspective on “LGBTQ people,” women deacons, or the Church’s teaching on birth control. But while these may be important issues to the opinion writers of the New York Times, they were not central to Pope Francis’s work.
A much better place to begin is, well, the beginning: those early years of the pontificate when an energetic and vigorous Pope Francis set out to reform the Vatican’s bureaucracy and put an emphasis on serving the poor and taking care of the sick.
<div id="attachment_913279" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-913279" class="size-large wp-image-913279" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-165118482-864x576.jpg" alt="VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 31: Pope Francis embraces a boy prior to his first 'Urbi et Orbi' blessing from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica during Easter Mass on March 31, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis delivered his message to the gathered faithful from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in St. Peter's Square after his first Holy week as Pontiff. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-165118482-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-165118482-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-165118482-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-165118482.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Franco Origlia/Getty Images</div>
I will never forget when the Pope, in 2013, reached down and kissed a man suffering from neurofibromatosis, a rare disease which had left him disfigured with boils all over his head. And this was far from the only example. In his first year in the seat of St. Peter, Pope Francis made a point of <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/26889/pope-francis-to-offer-hope-by-washing-young-inmates-feet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">washing the feet</a> of 12 young people at a juvenile detention center, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/27588/pope-francis-invites-homeless-to-dine-at-vatican" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inviting</a> 200 homeless people to dine at the Vatican, and living in a modest guest house rather than the Apostolic Palace.
With this radical humility, Pope Francis — the first Pope from the global South, where the Church continues to grow — reminded the decadent old continent that the cultural inheritance of Christendom is not in attending U.N. Conferences, but the corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the prisoners, bury the dead, and give alms to the poor.
Yet as much as Pope Francis loved the poor, he was not a humble Franciscan friar but a savvy Jesuit political operator whose initial attention to the corporal works of mercy — though never entirely lost — soon gave way to practical considerations about what would secure his power over the Church. And unfortunately, as he aged and became more entangled in the politics of the Vatican, Pope Francis became vulnerable to manipulation by his advisers as well as the media and indeed made many missteps that confused and divided his flock.
Examples abound. One week he would promote the blessing of “unions of persons of the same sex.” The next he would say that marriage will always be the union of one man and one woman. On one occasion, he declared that abortion was akin to “hiring a hitman,” while nevertheless appointing a pro-abortion economist to the Pontifical Academy for Life.
And because of his excessive reliance on the likes of Cardinal Blase Cupich — the radical progressive archbishop of Chicago whom he appropriately dubbed “the little woman” — Pope Francis was especially misguided in his approach to more conservative segments of the Church. He imposed serious restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, which is growing rapidly in the United States. And despite his frequent denunciation of “clericalism,” he upended, for no apparent reason, the constitution of Opus Dei, a prelature distinguished for promoting the role of the laity in the Church’s mission.
In short, rather than working with the young, vibrant, and faithful segments of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis attacked them, choosing instead to champion progressive prelates and priests like Father James Martin, a Jesuit who pushes the Catholic church to abandon the traditional definition of marriage.
<div id="attachment_720181" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-720181" class="size-large wp-image-720181" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-619464578-864x576.jpg" alt="MALMO, SWEDEN - OCTOBER 31: Pope Francis gives a speech during the 'Together in Hope' event at Malmo Arena on October 31, 2016 in Malmo, Sweden. The Pope is on 2 days visit attending Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration in Lund and Malmo. (Photo by Michael Campanella/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-619464578-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-619464578-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-619464578-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-619464578.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Michael Campanella/Getty Images</div>
In spite of his own opposition to these groups, however, Pope Francis’s pontificate witnessed a surge of conservative young people converting to Catholicism, in America and around the world. This Easter, dioceses across the United States <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/news/easter-converts-2024-by-the-numbers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> 30%, 40%, 50%, and even 70% increases in the number of converts coming into the Church on Easter Vigil. Young people seeking stability and rootedness account for most of these conversions, and the same phenomenon is happening in <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263349/france-sees-record-10384-adult-baptisms-in-2025-45-percent-increase-as-young-catholics-lead-revival" target="_blank" rel="noopener">France</a> and <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263329/surge-in-adults-entering-church-in-england-this-easter-prompted-by-internet-tradition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">England</a>, where a <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263239/catholics-now-outnumber-anglicans-among-gen-z-in-the-uk-study-suggestshttps:/www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263239/catholics-now-outnumber-anglicans-among-gen-z-in-the-uk-study-suggests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> shows that Gen Z Catholics now outnumber Anglicans two to one.
Amid this renewed interest in the Catholic Church, one of the great tragedies of Pope Francis’s papacy is that his misguided opposition to traditional religious communities and conservative political policies may have given many of these young Catholics the impression that a focus on serving the poor, feeding the hungry, and carrying out the other corporal works of mercy is somehow at odds with tradition and orthodoxy.
Let me be clear: this is not and never has been the case.
Christ tells his disciples in Matthew 25, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” The corporal works of mercy are essential for all Christians, regardless of denomination or political party. And beyond informing our personal faith, they also must guide our efforts to reclaim our institutions and restore our country.
Moreover, Pope Francis’s liberal posturing on things like the environment may obscure his urgent message to modernity. Consider the late Pope’s 2015 “global warming” encyclical, Laudato Si. While it did include entire sections on “pollution and climate change” which the liberal media fawned over and promoted, its deeper argument — that we have failed to “safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology” — was profoundly conservative and largely ignored.
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis beautifully lays out how a “technocratic paradigm” has led us to accept “every advance in technology with a view to profit, without concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings.” And in pursuit of this “unlimited human power,” he argues, we have undermined the various conditions that help us flourish: destroyed God’s majestic creation, contracepted our God-given gift to create life, and dishonored God’s plan for men and women to be different.
This message — not misguided one-off statements on airplane interviews or liberal media headlines about hot button political issues — is what we should take away from Pope Francis’s papacy.
Modernity, despite all its advances, has robbed us of many of the most basic spiritual and moral resources we need to flourish and be truly happy. To recover them, we don’t need complex coding or advanced AI, but rather, as Pope Francis sought to remind us, simply to follow the lessons Jesus taught us about serving our fellow man.
Much like the early parts of his pontificate, Pope Francis’s final days reflected this message.
On Sunday, the Pope’s last day on Earth, he met with Vice President JD Vance, squashing their public spat. He used his Easter message to make an appeal for peace in the world&#8217;s most war-torn regions. And finally, he made one last loop through St. Peter’s square, stopping several times to bless babies brought up to him and wish all his “brothers and sisters” a “Happy Easter.”
May he rest in peace, mixed legacy and all — and may his brother cardinals be inspired to choose a successor capable of combining Pope Francis’s initial emphasis on the corporal works with a steadfast commitment to tradition, both of which were sorely lacking in the final years of the Holy Father’s life.
* * *
Kevin Roberts is the President of The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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What Can We Learn From Pope Francis?

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in a case to decide whether an Oklahoma Catholic school can participate in the state&#8217;s charter school program, pitting the school against the state&#8217;s Republican attorney general.
The controversy arose after the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board approved a charter application from the Oklahoma City-based St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. After taking office, Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued to block the school from being eligible for the program, saying that Oklahoma law mandated charter schools be &#8220;nonsectarian.&#8221;
The Oklahoma Supreme Court <a href="https://dm1l19z832j5m.cloudfront.net/2024-06/Drummond-v-OK-SVCSB-2024-06-25-Majority-Decision.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agreed</a> with Drummond and blocked St. Isidore from receiving more public funds for its school. Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the charter board argues that St. Isidore&#8217;s First Amendment rights are being discriminated against.
“Instead of embracing schools like St. Isidore who are stepping up to provide solutions are discriminating against them just because of their faith,&#8221; charter board chair Brian Shellum said in a press call attended by The Daily Wire. &#8220;That’s not just unfair, it&#8217;s unconstitutional. Parents understand what’s at stake in this case. They are seeking results not roadblocks.&#8221;
Oklahoma charter schools, which are free and open to all students, are privately run but publicly supported.
In January, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and will look at <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/qp/24-00394qp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two questions.</a> The first is &#8220;whether the academic and pedagogical choices of a privately owned and run school constitute state action simply because it contracts with the state to offer a free educational option for interested students.&#8221; The second is whether Oklahoma is violating the Free Exercise Clause by excluding St. Isidore.
A win for St. Isidore would strike down a provision of the Oklahoma Charter School Act that expressly forbids religious charter schools and could open the door for more religious charter schools across the country.
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&#8220;A ruling for Petitioners will promote parental choice, individual liberty, educational diversity, and student achievement. It will also improve the lives of economically disadvantaged families and children by creating high-quality educational opportunities that are currently out of their reach,&#8221; lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-394/356083/20250421111247727_24-394%20Reply%20Brief.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brief</a>. &#8220;Excluding religious groups from Oklahoma’s charter-school program denies these opportunities and causes real harm. The Court should uphold the First Amendment and end this discrimination.&#8221;
Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Jim Campbell pointed The Daily Wire to three recent Supreme Court cases — Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Carson v. Makin — as examples of the high court siding with religious organizations that had been locked out of state programs. In Carson, the Supreme Court struck down a ban in Maine on vouchers from going toward religious schools.
Drummond also says that religious liberty is at stake, saying that it would be wrong to make the public fund religious schools that they are opposed to.
&#8220;As a committed Christian, the last thing I want is for my tax dollars to be used to fund the radical teachings of Sharia or the demonic worship of Satan. Thankfully, the Court agreed with my position and our religious liberty is protected — for now,&#8221; he said in July. &#8220;Let me be clear: Religious liberty means every citizen is free to worship as he or she believes. Religious liberty does not mean that the government should fund religious indoctrination with our tax dollars.&#8221;
He reiterated that argument in an <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/opinion/2025/04/27/ag-st-isidore-schools-ok-would-threaten-religious-liberty-opinion/83193358007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">op-ed</a> published on Monday in The Oklahoman, where he said that he supported religious private schools, but did not want the government to fund them in any form.
&#8220;I swore an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and I believe our Founding Fathers knew best how to protect religious liberty: by preventing the government from funding any religion at all. I do not want Oklahoma schoolchildren indoctrinated in public schools — I want them educated,&#8221; he wrote.
A spokesman for Drummond told The Daily Wire that the op-ed summarized the heart of his arguments and pointed to <a href="https://oklahoma.gov/oag/news/generally-speaking/2024/july-a-triumph-for-religious-liberty.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comments</a> he made after he won at the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Other top Oklahoma GOP officials, including Governor Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters, disagree with Drummond.
&#8220;Oklahomans know the Bible and Christian values shaped our nation — and they’re tired of seeing faith driven out of our schools,&#8221; Walters said. &#8220;AG Drummond is out of step with Oklahoma conservatives who know what made America great.&#8221;
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Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court To Block Order To Return Mistakenly Deported Man

Supreme Court To Hear Arguments In Landmark Case On School Choice And Religious Liberty

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Charter Schools

Education

Oklahoma

Religious Liberty

Supreme Court

President Donald Trump has arrived in Rome, where he will attend Pope Francis&#8217; funeral Saturday morning in Vatican City, marking the first foreign trip of his second term.
The funeral comes six days after Francis passed away, the day after Easter, dying at age 88 of a stroke and heart failure after a battle with pneumonia. Since then, tens of thousands of people have come to pay their respects to the late pope as he lay in state at St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Rome late Friday night. They will depart early Saturday afternoon after attending the funeral.
Previous Papal Funerals
Trump is only the second sitting president to attend a papal funeral. The first was George W. Bush, who attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. President Joe Biden did not attend the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2023, despite <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/photo/2011/06/vice-president-biden-pope" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> the former pope as vice president years earlier. Benedict died nine years after resigning as pope in 2013, an unusual move for a modern pope. He was succeeded by Francis.
Photos from that visit show three presidents, Bush, his father, President George H.W. Bush, and President Bill Clinton kneeling in the first pew behind Pope John Paul II&#8217;s body lying in state. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush kneel near them.
<div id="attachment_912385" style="width: 446px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-912385" class=" wp-image-912385" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-52596002-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="436" height="263" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-52596002-300x181.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-52596002-953x576.jpg 953w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-52596002-768x464.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-52596002.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 436px) 100vw, 436px" />(TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Who Else Will Be There?
Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican during his first term in 2017.
Biden met Francis twice: first as vice president in 2016, and during his presidency in 2021. Biden and former first lady Jill Biden will also travel to the Vatican to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3389950/trump-biden-pope-francis-funeral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attend</a> Francis&#8217; funeral.
<div id="attachment_912389" style="width: 408px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-912389" class=" wp-image-912389" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2156863278-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="398" height="265" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2156863278-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2156863278-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2156863278-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2156863278.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px" />(TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
<div id="attachment_912391" style="width: 406px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-912391" class=" wp-image-912391" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-480808665-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="264" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-480808665-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-480808665-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-480808665-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-480808665.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px" />(Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Neither former President Barack Obama nor former President George W. Bush will attend Pope Francis&#8217; funeral. Obama hosted Francis at the White House in 2015, marking the first papal visit to the United States since Pope Benedict in 2008. Francis was only the third pope ever to visit the White House.
Other world leaders who will attend the pope&#8217;s funeral include Javier Milei, president of Francis&#8217; birthplace, Argentina; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Prince William; French President Emmanuel Macron; and Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
As many as 200,000 people are expected to attend the funeral, the Italian government said.
How The Funeral Will Go
The funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning local time, which is 4 a.m. Eastern time in the United States.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re will preside over the funeral Mass and deliver the homily, the Vatican said. He is the dean of the College of Cardinals, which will form a conclave next month to install the next pope.
On Friday night, Francis&#8217; coffin was <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-coffin-rite-sealing-funeral-mass-novemdiales.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">set</a> to be sealed in a ceremony and closed to the public.
On Saturday morning, the funeral will begin with a procession in St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica, where the coffin will then be brought and set down. The funeral Mass will follow.
The cardinals who attend will be recognizable by their purple liturgical garments, the Vatican <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/the-funeral-celebration-of-pope-francis-on-saturday.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
After Mass, the funeral procession will slowly make its way to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, a little over two miles away, where Francis frequently went to pray before an icon of Mary. Francis is the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in over a century. Many popes are buried in the underground crypt beneath St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica.
&#8220;The coffin will be welcomed by &#8216;the last ones,&#8217; a group of poor and marginalized people who always had a special place in Pope Francis&#8217; heart,&#8221; the Vatican said. &#8220;They will be the ones to give the final tribute before the coffin is carried to the altar of Saint Mary Major.&#8221;
The burial will be private and is expected to end around 2:00 p.m. local time or 8:00 a.m. Eastern time.
The last funeral for a sitting pope, John Paul II, was three hours long. Francis&#8217; funeral looks like it will be even longer, around four hours.
The faithful may begin visiting Francis&#8217; tomb on Sunday, the day after the funeral, the Vatican said.
The funeral kicks off nine days of mourning for the late pope, with Mass each day before the cardinals begin their work to select a new occupant of the Chair of Peter.
How Is Francis&#8217; Funeral Different?
Francis&#8217; funeral will look different from his predecessors. That&#8217;s because he himself changed the rules for papal funerals.
Francis will be buried in just one wooden coffin lined with zinc rather than the three coffins some other popes were buried in, which were made of cypress, lead, and oak.
The late pontiff will also be <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/nx-s1-5374984/pope-francis-funeral-how-to-watch">buried</a> at the Basilica of St. Mary Major instead of St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica, the first pope in more than 350 years to be buried there since Clement IX.
Francis said in his autobiography published last year that a pope should be buried &#8220;with dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.&#8221; He also asked that his tomb be &#8220;in the ground; simple, without particular decoration, and with the sole inscription: Franciscus.&#8221;
Where To Watch
The Vatican News&#8217; YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@VaticanNews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">channel</a> will livestream the funeral and procession to the burial place.
A number of other news outlets and streaming services also plan to livestream the funeral.

U.S. President Donald Trump in Vatican

Trump Lands In Rome For Pope Francis’ Funeral. Here’s What To Expect.

Here's What To Expect As Trump Attends Pope Francis' Funeral Today

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Mourners waiting in line to view the body of Pope Francis as he lies in state inside St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica are complaining about the number of people taking selfies.
The Bishop of Rome passed away on Monday morning, as the Vatican announced, following a prolonged period of poor health. Pope Francis was 88 years old at the time of his death.
Vatican officials released photos of Francis in his velvet-lined coffin on Tuesday. The Holy Father is laid out wearing a red robe with the papal mitre on his head and a rosary intertwined in his hands.
“What did surprise me is the fact that earlier we were told no photos in the Sistine Chapel and here people were getting their phone out and doing selfies with the coffin,” one mourner <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14642673/The-faithful-queueing-selfie-popes-corpse-Mourners-wait-eight-hours-pose-pontiff.html">told</a> the Daily Mail. “I did think that was a bit in poor taste and I’m surprised no one stopped them.”
“I was very moved coming so close to Pope Francis, but it was awful seeing so many people taking pictures,&#8221; another person told The Sun.
“I found the mobile phones very distasteful,” another mourner <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/24/world-news/disrespectful-mourners-taking-selfies-with-dead-pope-spark-outrage/">said</a>. “I was very surprised there were photos.”
While photos of the deceased pope are not technically prohibited, many of the thousands of mourners are saying the practice of taking selfies with cell phones or even using selfie sticks is in poor taste. Visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica said sometimes security intervened to stop the photo takers, but other times they did not.
The last time a pope died in office was Pope John Paul II in 2005, before selfies and cell phone cameras were commonplace. The pope who served before Francis, Pope Benedict, resigned voluntarily in 2013 due to stated reasons of advanced age and declining health. He died in 2022.
The Vatican stated that around 50,000 people have lined up to view the body of Pope Francis. They are standing in line for up to eight hours to get a chance to see the Holy Father before his burial this weekend.
Large crowds are expected on Saturday for Pope Francis’ funeral in St. Peter&#8217;s Square. Some famous attendees are expected to include President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Prince William, heir to the British throne.
Per the late pope&#8217;s wishes, Francis will be buried at the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome, which is a departure from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/funeral-for-pope-francis-will-deviate-from-tradition">tradition</a>. Popes have typically been laid to rest in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, but the late pope opted to be interred at St. Mary Major due to the “very strong” connection he had there.

Mourners Complain After Some People Taking Selfies With Late Pope Francis

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As we lay to rest <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pope-francis">Pope Francis</a>, a man entrusted with the astonishing task of leading <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262883/worldwide-catholic-population-hits-14-billion#:~:text=Concretely%2C%20there%20has%20been%20a,to%20281%20million%20in%202023." target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.4 billion</a> Catholics worldwide, we must acknowledge that he was a pope who inspired devotion and yet also disillusionment.
The first non-European pope in over a millennium, the first Jesuit to hold the Chair of Peter, and the first to take the name Francis — after the saint of humility and radical poverty — he came to the papacy with the power of symbolism already at his side. But symbols alone do not make a legacy. His pontificate has been marked by deep paradoxes, extraordinary global events, and the unrelenting scrutiny of a digital age that magnifies every gesture, every silence, and every word into global significance.
Pope Francis led the Catholic Church at a time when questions of identity, history, and moral authority were being fiercely renegotiated across every sphere of public life. From the rise of “woke” ideology and the deconstruction of long-standing societal structures, to the counter currents of cultural revivalism and nationalist pushback, the world around the Church was changing — faster and more fundamentally than ever.
To that world, he showed incredible, compelling pastoral sensibility by embracing the very sick, the downtrodden, before the eyes of the world, making him a beloved figure among so many.
No moment captured the spiritual loneliness and universal leadership of Francis more than the evening of March 27, 2020. As the world reeled from the shock of a global pandemic, Francis <a href="https://catholicvote.org/when-pope-francis-became-a-solitary-beacon-of-hope-during-the-worst-days-of-the-covid-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stood utterly alone</a> in the rain-drenched emptiness of St. Peter’s Square. His solitary figure, small under the weight of a sodden white cassock, illuminated by the flickering torches before the Eucharist, became an icon of global grief — and hope. He did not thunder. He prayed. He did not offer a solution. He stood there in the silence of that unforgettable moment.
<div id="attachment_911243" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911243" class="size-large wp-image-911243" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-1024x576.jpg" alt="Pope Francis gives an extraordianry urbi et orbi blessing in St. Peter's Square, March 27, 2020. | Credit: Vatican Media" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-2048x1153.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Vatican Media</div>
Yet while he insisted Church doctrine could not and would not be changed, many weary Catholics saw how he loosened the uniquely stalwart position of the Catholic church on issues related to marriage and family. 
On one hand, he condemned abortion, equating it to <a href="https://catholicvote.org/throughout-his-pontificate-a-look-at-pope-francis-statements-on-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;hiring a hitman&#8221;</a> and <a href="https://catholicvote.org/pope-francis-strongly-warned-against-ideological-colonization-gender/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denounced gender ideology</a>; but more than once he gave a <a href="https://catholicvote.org/pope-francis-writes-preface-fr-james-martins-book-about-lazarus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disturbing nod</a> to ministries aimed at changing Church doctrine over gay &#8220;marriage&#8221; and transgenderism, including his brief <a href="https://outreach.faith/2022/05/pope-francis-speaks-to-lgbtq-catholics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exchange</a> with Father James Martin, the founder of the LGBT Catholic ministry, Outreach.
Pope Francis’ handling of clerical sex abuse was also marked by troubling contradictions. On one hand, he <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/pope-issues-updated-vos-estis-text-handling-abuse-cases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">established clearer procedures</a> for investigating abuse and holding bishops accountable and publicly condemned the culture of cover-ups that protected abusers. On the other hand, his actions in high-profile cases like those of <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/father-marko-rupnik-accused-of-abuse-and-returned-to-ministry-a-timeline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fr. Marko Rupnik</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/argentine-catholic-bishop-gustavo-zanchetta-sentenced-sexual-abuse-pope-francis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta</a> raise serious questions about consistency and impartiality.
Perhaps more than any other pontiff before him, Pope Francis lived his entire papacy inside the glass house of modern social media. Every homily, every off-the-cuff remark, and even every carefully crafted document was instantly dissected by millions across ideological, religious, and national divides, though it was often his informality in communication that blurred clarity, allowing ideologues across the spectrum to weaponize his words.
In the echo chambers of the internet, he was often cast simultaneously as a reformer and a betrayer, a prophet and a populist, a revolutionary and a regressive. The speed with which opinions formed around his leadership was unprecedented — and sometimes uncharitable.
In his many interviews and press conferences that often required follow-ups or clarifications, it is clear that he perceived himself as a pope who stood at the crossroads of history amidst the noise of clashing narratives.
In many ways, his legacy will be as divided as his papacy. To his supporters, he will be the “Pope of the Peripheries,” to his critics, the Pope of Ambiguity, leaving behind a trail of confusion and even division that his successor in the papacy will have to deal with.
Francis reminded us that the Pope is both a man and a sign — fragile, flawed, and beloved. We now pray not only for his soul but for the Church he leaves behind: wounded in places and always in need of shepherds who speak with both his tenderness but also with the clarity of truth.
* * *
Kelsey Reinhardt is Director of Media and Evangelization for CatholicVote.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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The first photos of Pope Francis in his casket were released on Tuesday, as the Vatican announced the pontiff&#8217;s funeral for Saturday.
The images released by the Vatican show the pontiff lying in a wooden casket wearing traditional red vestments and his bishop&#8217;s miter, with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/first-photos-released-pope-francis-his-casket-funeral-set-saturday">praying</a> over his body.
Francis was placed in the casket Monday night in the chapel of the Vatican&#8217;s Casa Santa Marta by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, operating as the acting head of the church until a new pope is selected.
<div id="attachment_910751" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910751" class="wp-image-910751 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211383735-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images</div>
Catholics can <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2025/04/22/250422a.html">begin</a> paying their respects starting Wednesday, when the casket is brought into St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica.
Cardinals met on Tuesday to establish the next steps, <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2025/04/22/250422b.html">setting</a> the funeral for 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Peter&#8217;s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. President Trump said he plans to attend the funeral with the first lady, as dozens of other world leaders have also confirmed their attendance.
Francis, who was 88, died Monday morning of a cerebral stroke followed by a coma and ultimately “irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse,” according to the Vatican.
The pope had been in and out of the hospital for two months prior to his death, battling various respiratory illnesses necessitating a constant flow of supplemental oxygen and at least one emergency blood transfusion, per the New York Post.
<div id="attachment_910757" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910757" class="size-large wp-image-910757" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2211382949-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images</div>
In his final will, Francis wished to be buried at St. Mary Major Basilica, located outside the Vatican, breaking with the tradition of papal burials at St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica.
Pope Francis was the first pontiff from the Americas and the first Jesuit pope in the Church&#8217;s history, serving during a period of significant challenges for the Catholic Church.
His death marks the end of a controversial era and sets the stage for what many religious conservatives hope will be a return to more traditional Catholic leadership.
A conclave to elect the next pope must begin between 15 and 20 days after Francis&#8217;s death, according to Church law.
During this period, Cardinal Farrell will oversee the Vatican&#8217;s administration and the conclave of 135 cardinals under the age of 80 who are eligible to vote in the secretive process of selecting the 267th pontiff.
&#8220;He gave himself to the end,&#8221; said Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops&#8217; conference and a possible candidate to be the next pope. &#8220;To go out to meet everyone, speak to everyone, teach us to speak to everyone, to bless everyone.&#8221;

Pope Francis Dies At Easter

Vatican Releases First Photos Of Pope Francis In Casket

Pope Francis passes away just one day after delivering an Easter message to millions of Christian faithful. It will be days before the church picks a new pontiff, but some favorites have already emerged. And, with Republicans in control of D.C., Democrats are searching for a strategy and a leader to pull them out of the political abyss.
It’s Tuesday, April 22, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Pope Francis’ Legacy</h2>
<div id="attachment_910567" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910567" class="size-large wp-image-910567" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Pope Francis, the 266th head of the Catholic Church, died Monday at the age of 88. His death marks the end of a transformative and, at times, polarizing papacy.
Pope Francis will likely be remembered as a progressive reformer. In 2013, shortly after he was elected, he made his famously controversial statement about gay priests, “Who am I to judge?” His 2015 encyclical called for environmental action, and he continually urged world leaders to address climate change. During his last Easter address on Sunday, after meeting with Vice President JD Vance, he warned against politicians stirring up “anti-migrant” sentiments.
But his papacy wasn’t as transformative as many theological progressives would have liked. Francis did endorse civil unions for same-sex couples, which was a historic move for a pope, and approved a document saying priests could “bless” gay couples. But he also upheld the Church’s stance that marriage is between a man and a woman. He also refused to approve the use of contraception and ordaining women, and was staunchly pro-life.
Francis took steps to curb the influence of conservative prelates who viewed his reforms as a threat to Church tradition. In 2014, he removed conservative cardinals like Raymond Burke, a vocal critic, from a key Vatican post. He also appointed more moderate or progressive bishops to various roles of authority and elevated like-minded clerics to the College of Cardinals. Because of this, critics accused him of stacking the deck and stifling dissent.
“He was really progressive,” Robert Sirico, former president of the conservative Acton Institute, told Morning Wire. “People call him a Marxist. They don&#8217;t think he was a Marxist. He certainly wasn&#8217;t a free market kind of guy, the way John Paul was. But on the other hand, I think he profoundly misunderstood the United States on a very visceral level, and I think that is owing to his Argentinian background.”
Despite possibly being the most progressive pope in history, Francis’ tenure saw a resurgence of conservative Catholicism, especially among young believers. Last year, we reported on the surge in Catholic conversions among young people in New York City. However, there is also evidence that this trend is happening in Europe. According to the Bishops’ Conference of France, more than 10,000 adults were baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on Easter Sunday – mostly young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. Something similar is happening in England, where surveys now show that Catholics outnumber Anglicans by more than two to one among Gen Z and younger millennials. These younger people, particularly young men, are <a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/honorable-mention/2024/americas-catholic-church-seeing-shift-toward-more-conservative-ways/">being especially drawn</a> to more conservative expressions of faith.
<h2>The Next Pope</h2>
<div id="attachment_910565" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910565" class="size-large wp-image-910565" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Speculation is already swirling about who will become the next head of the Catholic Church.
When a pope dies, eligible cardinals convene a papal conclave, where they cast ballots for the next pope. Famously, white smoke appears from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney when a new pope is elected, and a cardinal comes out to announce the new pope to cheering crowds in St. Peter’s Square. Usually, one of the cardinals is elected the next pope, and the big question on many Catholics’ minds is whether the new pope will lean conservative or progressive on controversial issues.
One of the more conservative candidates being discussed as a possible successor is Cardinal Robert Sarah, 79, an African cardinal from Guinea who has been an outspoken critic of Francis.
“The Church is not a social organization to meet [the] problem of migration or poverty,” Sarah <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG0YSN7LeAM">said</a>, in response to Pope Francis’s stance on immigration policy. “The Church is a divine purpose to save the world.”
Sarah was critical of Francis’ restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass and his statement on blessings for same-sex couples.
Cardinal Wim Eijk, 71, is also considered a conservative potential successor. Eijk is a former medical doctor from the Netherlands – and he’s been a sharp critic of Francis. He is one of the authors of a 2015 document opposing the pope’s approval of civil remarriages among people who have not received an annulment, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/18/world-news/who-are-the-frontrunners-to-be-elected-next-pontiff-after-pope-francis/">calling</a> them “a form of structured and institutionalized adultery.” Eijk also <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/cardinal-eijk-pope-francis-needed-to-give-clarity-on-intercommunion">criticized</a> Francis for giving what he called a “completely incomprehensible” response to a German Bishops’ Conference proposal on allowing Protestants to receive the Eucharist.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, 77, is another conservative from Sri Lanka. He criticized bishops who did not obey Pope Benedict on allowing the Latin Mass.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, 76, is one of the few potential successors from the United States. Burke has criticized the Church’s more liberal language under Francis, and he said that Catholic politicians who support legal abortion, like former President Joe Biden, should not receive the Eucharist.
A number of more progressive and politically moderate candidates are also likely to take the reins of the Church.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, who’s been <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151124125431/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/15/manila-cardinal-luis-tagle-the-asian-pope-francis/">called</a> the “Asian Pope Francis” and would likely continue Francis’ more left-leaning stances. Tagle has defended the Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception, but he has also criticized the Church for using “harsh words” for LGBT people and divorced and remarried Catholics.
Another more progressive cardinal in the running is the French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, 66, who was reportedly Francis’ “favorite” to succeed him and is well-liked in left-wing circles.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, is an Italian cardinal who has been in the Holy See’s diplomatic service since the 1980s, is considered a political moderate and has played a role in many political issues, including moderating 2014 talks between Cuban and American officials, asking the United States to find an “adequate humanitarian solution” for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, and urging countries to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
<h2>Democrats Tilt Left As They Search For A Standard Bearer</h2>
<div id="attachment_910569" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910569" class="size-large wp-image-910569" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Gajus via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: As President Donald Trump approaches his 100th day in office, Democrats are still searching for a message — and messenger — to lead their party.
Since their defeat in November, there’s been little cause for confidence within the Democratic Party. For the optimists on the Left, Democrats did see strong turnout in special elections in a dozen or so states, where their candidates outperformed Kamala Harris by an average of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-performance-improving-slew-special-elections-weary-party-lo-rcna198984">more than 10 percentage points</a>. Most notably, Democrats won a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dangerously-liberal-judge-projected-to-win-wisconsin-supreme-court-race">resounding victory</a> for a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin — a state Trump won by a point.
But: The bad news outweighs the good. First, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nn1HT9AZ2OPFuB1z2jKHM6OMrh-NONO0NIzOoHqjxk8/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.35xntky3bxsv">Gallup</a> just found that the approval rating for Democrat leaders in Congress has fallen to just 25%. Not only is that the lowest mark in the poll&#8217;s history, it’s a full nine points lower than the previous record. That disapproval is crossing party lines – according to the latest numbers from CNN, only 63% of Democrats even view their own party favorably.
Polling shows that folks on the Left feel their leaders don’t have a clear strategy for standing up to Trump. A recent survey from Data for Progress asked Democrat voters how they would grade their party leaders’ response to Donald Trump &#8212; 7 in 10 gave a C, D, or F. If they had a singular leader to rally around, there might be more optimism, but there isn’t a clear standard bearer waiting in the wings for them to rally around. President Barack Obama can’t run again and is seemingly content to work primarily behind the scenes. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is 85 years old and could retire at any moment. President Joe Biden is 82 and still unpopular with the general public. Vice President Kamala Harris could come back into the fray, but she’s essentially been in hiding since November.
That void has left an opportunity for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — two of the Left’s most popular, and controversial lawmakers — to take center stage. A poll last week from Survey USA found that 50% of Democrats want the party to “become more progressive,” while just 18% said “more moderate.” AOC and Sanders&#8217; &#8220;Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; speaking tour has drawn massive crowds all across the country, including in deep-red states like Idaho and Utah. Instead of embracing a more moderate approach, they’ve gone all-in on calling for Democrats to embrace their far-Left base and oppose Trump at all costs.
“Donald Trump is a criminal who was found guilty of 34 counts of fraud,” AOC <a href="https://x.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1911951880395055606">told</a> a cheering crowd in Idaho. “Of course he’s lying and abusing and manipulating the stock market, too. When he talks about rapists and criminals he should look in the mirror.”
Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $10 million last quarter — by far her largest haul since taking office, and according to a recent YouGov poll, she’s got a +61 approval rating among Democrat voters. Polls now show that Ocasio-Cortez is a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. Plenty of Republicans are salivating at the idea of AOC becoming the party’s leader or nominee, given her endorsements of measures that are unpopular with the general public, including the Green New Deal, defunding the police, and abolishing ICE.
To that point, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom appears to be pushing his party to make a beeline for the middle, urging it to retreat from political correctness, oppose boys in girls&#8217; sports, and refrain from apocalyptic language about Donald Trump and his supporters. But right now, that message doesn’t seem to be gaining much traction with Democratic voters.

Pope Francis Leads Way Of The Cross On Rio’s Copacabana Beach

Morning Brief: The Pope’s Legacy, Potential Successors & The Future Of The Democratic Party

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Bernie Sanders

Democratic Party

General

Vatican officials revealed Monday evening that Pope Francis died of a cerebral stroke followed by a coma and ultimately “irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse.”
Professor Andrea Arcangeli, Director of the Directorate of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State, issued the official certification per the Holy See Press Office late Monday.
Arcangeli confirmed the Pontiff’s death through electrocardiographic thanatography, <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2025/04/21/250421d.html">stating</a>, &#8220;I hereby declare that the causes of death, to the best of my knowledge and judgment, are as stated.&#8221;
The report <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-death-due-to-stroke-and-irreversible-cardiocircula.html">listed</a> the time of death as 7:35 a.m. on Monday, with the causes of death listed as a “stroke,” leading to a “coma,” and eventually “irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse,” per Vatican News.
The brief report noted the Pope had a “previous episode of acute respiratory failure in the context of bilateral multimicrobial pneumonia” and suffered from “multiple bronchiectasis,” “Arterial hypertension,” and “Type II diabetes” before his death early Monday.
Professor Arcangeli&#8217;s certification follows standard Vatican protocol for documenting the death of a pontiff, with the use of electrocardiographic thanatography providing medically precise confirmation of the time of cardiac death.
The Pope had been in and out of the hospital for two months prior to his death, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/world-news/pope-francis-cause-of-death-revealed-by-the-vatican/">battling</a> various respiratory illnesses necessitating a constant flow of supplemental oxygen and at least one emergency blood transfusion, per the New York Post.
Pope Francis&#8217; death marks a pivotal moment for the world&#8217;s 1.3 billion Catholics, who now await the selection of a new spiritual leader.

Pope Francis Delivers His Weekly Audience At The Vatican

Vatican Reveals Cause Of Death For Pope Francis

President Donald Trump ordered federal and state flags to fly at half-staff in memory of Pope Francis, who died Monday at the age of 88.
The executive order followed earlier condolences from both Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who briefly met with Francis on Easter Sunday at the Vatican.
&#8220;As a mark of respect for the memory of His Holiness Pope Francis, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114376655236734018">wrote</a>. &#8220;I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.&#8221;
Shortly after he signed the order, Trump appeared at the White House Easter Egg Roll, where he addressed the death of Francis.
&#8220;I just signed an executive order putting the flags of our country — all of them, all federal flags and state flags — at half-mast in honor of Pope Francis. He was a good man, worked hard. He loved the world.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;I just signed an executive order putting the flags of our country &#8212; all of them &#8212; at half-mast in honor of Pope Francis. He was a good man, worked hard. He loved the world.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/v8YWFDJMOZ">pic.twitter.com/v8YWFDJMOZ</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1914335869252559151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Trump and Vance have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-vance-pays-brief-visit-to-pope-francis-on-easter?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=JD+Vance+Pays+Brief+Visit+To+Pope+Francis+On+Easter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cultivated</a> a close relationship with Catholics, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/eradicating-anti-christian-bias-trump-signs-executive-action-ending-targeting-of-christians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promising</a> to crack down on &#8220;anti-Christian bias,&#8221; pointing to the increase in arson and vandalism surrounding Catholic churches as Roe v. Wade was overturned. During a February speech at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Vance said that Trump, who is not Catholic, “has been an incredibly good president for Catholics in the United States of America.”
<a href="https://youtu.be/uwdJ2UEtFtk?si=9nyTfXeCB0U0Cvpu">WATCH: MICHAEL KNOWLES EXPLAINS HOW THE NEXT POPE WILL BE SELECTED</a>
In recent months, Francis has attacked the Trump administration&#8217;s planned deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.
“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” Francis <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2025/documents/20250210-lettera-vescovi-usa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in a February letter to Catholic Bishops in the United States.
Those comments received <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tom-homan-slams-the-pope-for-hypocrisy-about-border-security?author=Daily+Wire+News&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Tom+Homan+Slams+The+Pope+For+Hypocrisy+About+Border+Security" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushback</a> from Catholics inside the Trump administration, including border czar Tom Homan, who said that Francis should focus on the church instead of commenting on border policy.

Pope Francis Attends Weekly General Audience

Trump Orders Flags Lowered To Half-Staff In Memory Of Pope Francis

Executive

Illegal Immigation

JD Vance

Tom Homan

With the passing of Pope Francis on Monday, people are once again asking about the centuries-old process that determines who will become the next pope. 
The method for selecting the Bishop of Rome is cloaked in ritual, secrecy, and symbolism, and this process was explored in detail by Daily Wire host Michael Knowles in a recent video, “How To Become The Pope.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How To Become The Pope | Michael Knowles EXPLAINS" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uwdJ2UEtFtk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The death of Pope Francis has triggered what is known as the sede vacante, Latin for “the seat being vacant.” 
As tradition dictates, the Catholic Church will now observe a period of nine days of mourning, which includes flying Vatican flags at half-staff and closing the bronze doors of St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica. The cardinals will decide on the date for Pope Francis&#8217;s funeral, usually within four to six days after a pope&#8217;s death.
Pope Francis recently <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-funeral-details-jorge-mario-bergoglio-vatican-2034684">changed protocol</a> for his funeral and burial. Instead of being interred in the crypt beneath St. Peter&#8217;s Basilica, Francis requested to be laid to rest with minimal pageantry at Rome&#8217;s Basilica of St. Mary Major in a simple wooden casket.
After the funeral, the College of Cardinals, made up of senior church leaders under the age of 80, is summoned to Rome to elect Francis’ successor. As Knowles states in his video, there are currently 138 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope.  
This process is done in a conclave, or a highly secretive gathering held within the Sistine Chapel, as Knowles explained. All participating cardinals are locked inside without access to the outside world until they can come to a decision. Voting takes place up to four times a day, and a two-thirds majority is required to elect a new pontiff.
Ballots are burned after each round of voting. Special chemicals are added to produce black smoke for an undecided vote or white smoke for an agreement, meaning a new Pope has been chosen. The watch for white smoke to emerge from a special stove in the Sistine Chapel is followed by millions of faithful Catholics and interested bystanders around the world. 
Historically, political and regional factors have influenced who was chosen as pope. Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is from Argentina. That made him the first pope from Latin America and the first pope from the Western Hemisphere after more than 1,200 years of popes of European descent. He was also the first Jesuit pope and has been criticized in recent years for his stance on social issues such as immigration.  
Any baptized male Catholic is technically eligible to become pope, but in the past, only cardinals have been seriously considered for the position.
The election of a new pope is more than just a religious event. It is a process that sets the direction of the growing Catholic Church, which currently has 1.4 billion members, and the beginning of a new chapter for Catholicism on the global stage.

cardinal

How Will The Next Pope Be Chosen? Inside The Ancient Ritual Of The Catholic Church

Reactions from around the world poured in after Pope Francis died Monday at the age of 88.
Shortly after the news broke, the White House posted &#8220;Rest In Peace&#8221; alongside photos of Francis meeting with both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Vance met with Francis at the Vatican for about twenty minutes on Easter Sunday.
&#8220;Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!&#8221; President Donald Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114375838396081159" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Truth Social.
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Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. ✝️ <a href="https://t.co/8CGwKaNnTh">pic.twitter.com/8CGwKaNnTh</a>
&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1914246037125857689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul,&#8221; Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/1914239114406191255" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X, sharing a link to a message on prayer delivered by Pope Francis on March 27, 2020.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a similar message.
&#8220;On Easter Monday, Jeanette and I are saddened to the news of Pope Francis&#8217; passing. We unite in prayer with Catholics worldwide for the repose of the pontiff&#8217;s soul and for this period of transition for the Catholic Church. May He rest in peace,&#8221; Rubio <a href="https://x.com/SecRubio/status/1914282184044577021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Argentinian President Javier Milei also offered condolences. Francis was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was the first pope from Latin America.
&#8220;It is with profound sorrow that I learned this sad morning that Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, passed away today and is now resting in peace. Despite differences that seem minor today, having been able to know him in his kindness and wisdom was a true honor for me. As President, as an Argentine, and, fundamentally, as a man of faith, I bid farewell to the Holy Father and stand with all of us who are today dealing with this sad news,&#8221; Milei posted, according to a translation.
<a href="https://youtu.be/uwdJ2UEtFtk?si=9nyTfXeCB0U0Cvpu">WATCH: MICHAEL KNOWLES EXPLAINS HOW THE NEXT POPE WILL BE SELECTED</a>
Other world leaders also reacted to the news.
&#8220;Pope Francis has returned to the house of the Father. This news saddens us deeply, because a great man and a great pastor have left us. I had the privilege of enjoying his friendship, his advice and his teachings, which never failed even in moments of trial and suffering,&#8221; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni <a href="https://x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/1914239044885569647" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X, according to translation. &#8220;We greet the Holy Father with hearts full of sadness, but we know that he is now in the peace of the Lord.&#8221;
&#8220;We mourn the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis — a shepherd who led with courage &amp; unwavering faith. Twice, we had the honour of welcoming him to Hungary,&#8221; Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted. 
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🕯️ We mourn the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Pontifex</a> &#8211; a shepherd who led with courage &amp; unwavering faith. Twice, we had the honour of welcoming him to Hungary. His prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Hungary, still resonates: “Instil into the hearts of… <a href="https://t.co/xZuqeZtHt1">pic.twitter.com/xZuqeZtHt1</a>
&mdash; Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) <a href="https://twitter.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/1914278773593112688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Deeply pained by the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. In this hour of grief and remembrance, my heartfelt condolences to the global Catholic community. Pope Francis will always be remembered as a beacon of compassion, humility and spiritual courage by millions across the world,&#8221; India Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. &#8220;I fondly recall my meetings with him and was greatly inspired by his commitment to inclusive and all-round development. His affection for the people of India will always be cherished. May his soul find eternal peace in God’s embrace.&#8221;
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Deeply pained by the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis. In this hour of grief and remembrance, my heartfelt condolences to the global Catholic community. Pope Francis will always be remembered as a beacon of compassion, humility and spiritual courage by millions across the… <a href="https://t.co/QKod5yTXrB">pic.twitter.com/QKod5yTXrB</a>
&mdash; Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1914239482129453417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Deeply saddened to hear of the death of His Holiness Pope Francis. His tireless efforts to promote a world that is fairer for all will leave a lasting legacy. On behalf of the people of the United Kingdom, I share my sincerest condolences to the whole Catholic Church,&#8221; British Prime Minister Meir Starmer posted on social media.
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Pope Francis Meets USA President Donald Trump

Trump, World Leaders Respond To Death Of Pope Francis

Giorgia Meloni

Javier Milei

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