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    Designers Do a Double Take at the Lettering on Pope Francis’ Tombstone

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    Irregularly spaced letters spelling “F R A NCISC VS” have caused a stir among typography nerds who specialize in spacing and fonts. One called them “an abomination unto design.”The arrangements for the funeral of Pope Francis were meticulous, and the ceremony drew a global audience. But it is the arrangement of the letters on his tombstone that are now attracting outsize attention.The simple slab has only 10 letters, but the spacing between them can make it read like “F R A NCISC VS.”Of course, the lettering is meant to be read as Franciscus, the derivative of the pope’s name in Latin. (V stood for both u and v in Latin.)Pope Francis’ marble tomb reflects his simple style and fulfills his desire for an unadorned final resting place. In that sense, the tombstone lettering in Times Roman, a workmanlike font that is widely used in the English language, could be considered appropriate.But for those who obsess about kerning, the space between letters, the view from above the tomb is not exactly an aesthetically pleasing one.“Woe be unto the person who decided to do it the way that they did it, just because it’s a bad decision that will last for a long time, unless they change it,” said Charles Nix, the senior executive creative director at Monotype, one of the world’s largest typeface and technology companies.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Posts an Image of Himself as Pope

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      The president has joked about being the next pontiff, but the image, which appeared to be A.I.-generated, took things a step further and drew some pushback.President Trump on Tuesday had a ready answer when reporters asked who he would like to see become the next supreme pontiff. “I’d like to be Pope,” he joked to reporters at the White House. “That would be my number one choice.”He took the joke a step further on Saturday, sharing what appeared to be an A.I.-generated photo of himself wearing the traditional vestments of the Pope on social media. The photo depicts him in a white cassock with a cross around his neck, his face solemn as he raises a pointed finger.The origins of the photo were not immediately clear, and Mr. Trump did not include any commentary in his post. He shared the image on Truth Social, Instagram and X, and the White House reposted it on its official Instagram and X accounts.The idea of “Pope Trump,” as some people called it, was immediately polarizing. Some religious people, including Catholics, did not see the humor in it, calling the photo offensive, at a time when millions of people were still mourning Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday. Several commenters on Truth Social, which is run by a company controlled by Mr. Trump, called the post sacrilegious and said it fueled misinformation.Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, said posting the photo during a period of mourning was evidence that Mr. Trump was “unserious and incapable.”But some conservative Republicans have been playing along with the president’s joke this week. Among them was Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope,” he said Tuesday in a post on X. “The first Pope-U.S. President combination has many upsides,” he added. “Watching for white smoke … Trump MMXXVIII!”A screenshot of an image, likely created with A.I., of President Trump wearing papal robes. After the president shared it, the image was posted to the official White House Instagram account.via InstagramThe Vatican, which is deep in preparations for the election of Pope Francis’s successor, could not immediately be reached for comment on the image.It is not the first time that Mr. Trump has shared polemical content that appeared to be generated with artificial intelligence. In February, he posted a video that depicted the Gaza Strip reimagined as an opulent resort emblazoned with his name. A representative for the Hamas-run government in Gaza called the video “disgraceful.”After his jest to reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Trump, who has significantly expanded the influence of conservative Christians in the White House, said he had no strong preference for pope. But then he pointed to the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, as one of his favorite candidates. Cardinal Dolan is not among the front-runners that have emerged to be the next pope, who will be elected at a conclave that begins Wednesday. More

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      Previously Unpublished: A Look at One of the Last Things Pope Francis Wrote

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      In a foreword to a book, he articulated the church’s position on marriage.In the days since his death, Pope Francis has been called a reformer, outsider, influencer and modernizer. He was all of these things. But he was also the steward of the oldest institution in the Western world. He protected the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine — even if he did so in his own style.That is evident in one of Francis’ last writings, which was provided to The New York Times and has not previously been published. It’s a short foreword to a book, written for young Catholics, about the church’s teachings on love and marriage. The book is from the YOUCAT Foundation (short for youth catechism, or doctrine), an organization approved by the Vatican to publish the church’s teachings in a way that young people can understand. The foundation distributes books in 70 languages around the world.In the foreword, Francis articulates the church’s position on marriage: that it is a priority, one of sacred importance, and is only between a man and a woman. He breaks no new doctrinal ground. Still, the letter illustrates who Francis was as a pope: a pragmatic and compassionate communicator who skillfully repackaged, without necessarily changing, the church’s doctrine for a modern era. (Read the full text here.)“It’s a confirmation of a legacy,” Raúl Zegarra, a professor of Catholicism at Harvard, said. “It’s really a classic text by the pope.”His rhetorical styleIn his opening lines, Francis captures much of his approach to the papacy.“In my homeland of Argentina, there is a dance I love very much, one that I often participated in when I was young: the tango,” Francis, the first Latin American pope, writes. He then compares the tango, in all of its “discipline and dignity,” to marriage.“I am always touched to see young people who love each other and have the courage to transform their love into something great: ‘I want to love you until death do us part.’ What an extraordinary promise!”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Pope Francis on Tango, and Lasting Marriage

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      A transcript of one of the last things he wrote before he died.This is the full text of a foreword written by Pope Francis to a book outlining Catholic teachings on love and marriage for young people. It was translated from Italian by Isabella Corletto. Read more about the letter here.Dear friends,In my homeland of Argentina, there is a dance I love very much, one that I often participated in when I was young: the tango. Tango is a wonderful, free game between man and woman, filled with erotic charm and attraction. The male and female dancers court each other and experience closeness and distance, sensuality, attention, discipline and dignity. They rejoice in love and understand what it might mean to give themselves to someone completely. Perhaps it is due to my distant memory of this dance that I have called my great apostolic exhortation on marriage “Amoris Laetitia”: the joy of love.I am always touched to see young people who love each other and have the courage to transform their love into something great: “I want to love you until death do us part.” What an extraordinary promise! Of course, I am not blind, and neither are you. How many marriages today fail after three, five, seven years? Maybe your parents, too, began the sacrament of marriage with that same courage, but were unable to take their love to completion. Wouldn’t it be better, then, to avoid the pain, to touch each other only as though in a passing dance, to enjoy each other, play together, and then leave?Do not believe this! Believe in love, believe in God, and believe that you are capable of taking on the adventure of a love that lasts a lifetime. Love wants to be permanent; “until further notice” isn’t love. We humans have the desire to be accepted without reservations, and those who do not have this experience often — unknowingly — carry a wound for the rest of their lives. Instead, those who enter into a union lose nothing, but gain everything: life at its fullest.Holy Scripture is very clear: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). One flesh! Jesus takes this all to its culmination: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh” (Mark 10:8). One single body. One single home. One single life. One single family. One single love.In order to help you build a foundation for your relationship based on God’s faithful love, I have called upon the whole Church to do much more for you. We cannot continue on as before: many only see the beautiful ritual. And then, after some years, they separate. Faith is destroyed. Wounds are opened. There are often children who are missing a father or a mother. To me, this is like dancing tango poorly. Tango is a dance that must be learned. This is all the more true when it comes to marriage and family. Before receiving the sacrament of marriage, a proper preparation is necessary. A catechumenate, I would even venture to say, because all life takes place in love, and love is not something to take lightly.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Dinner That Helped Save Europe

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      In 1979, during John Paul II’s first visit to the United States as pope, he met with President Jimmy Carter at the White House. Shortly after that, he invited Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security adviser, to dinner at the Vatican Embassy in Washington. Along with world affairs, Carter wanted to discuss declining morals with the recently elected pope, but Brzezinski had more practical subjects in mind.For the pontiff and the adviser, their mutual obsession was the Soviet Union. Over a simple meal at the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See, they explored how they could together weaken Moscow’s grip over its captive nations. Brzezinski was stunned by the pope’s geopolitical knowledge. He joked that Carter was more like a religious leader while the pope seemed more like a world statesman. The vicar of Christ affirmed the quip with a belly laugh, Brzezinski noted in his personal diary, to which I acquired exclusive access.From that dinner onward, the two Polish-born figures — one the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, the other America’s first (and to date, probably the only) Polish-speaking grand strategist — became intimate allies.Their serendipitous relationship proved critical in late 1980 in dissuading the Soviets from invading Poland, where the Solidarity movement had just emerged as a serious challenge to the Communist government. It was a partnership sustained by a running dialogue conducted during Brzezinski’s visits to the Vatican, in long handwritten correspondence and over the phone. His White House speed dial had P for “pope.”John Paul’s relationship with Brzezinski is a vivid example of how diplomacy works when there is mutual trust. Good chemistry is rare but extremely productive. Sustained dialogue with both friends and adversaries in today’s volatile world is, if anything, even more critical. The ability at a tense moment to pick up the phone and know that you can trust the person on the other end is the fruit of constant gardening.Yet it is increasingly hard to find the time. Technology means that presidential envoys are always within White House reach to respond to the cascade of competing demands. The world is also a more complex place than it was 40 years ago, and U.S. diplomats have rarely been held in lower regard at home. Twenty-four-hour media scrutiny also makes secrecy far harder. Henry Kissinger’s covert visit to Beijing in 1971 to pave the way for U.S. rapprochement with Mao Zedong’s China is hard to imagine today.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Melania Trump, Prince William and Zelensky Among Famous Faces at Pope Francis’ Funeral

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      President Trump, Melania Trump, Prince William and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine were among those who paid respects to the pontiff in St. Peter’s Square.Among the tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday for Pope Francis’ funeral were monarchs, world leaders, at least one former president and other familiar faces.Filling up the rows of nondescript chairs, according to Vatican protocol, reigning monarchs went first, including King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain. Then came heads of state, in alphabetical order according to the name of their country in French.Only Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy and President Javier Milei of the pope’s native Argentina had priority seating toward the front.Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron of France sat across an aisle from President Trump, and Melania Trump, the first lady, and the two presidents shook hands at one point in the service. Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Catholic, sat farther away with Jill Biden, the former first lady.Crowds watching on big screens around the square applauded when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine took his seat. Leaders from Africa and Asia, regions where the Catholic Church is growing, also took their seats, including President William Ruto of Kenya and President Droupadi Murmu of India.Other royals who aren’t heads of state, including Prince William, sat in a group just in front of visiting government ministers and other dignitaries.Away from the world leaders, among the crowds, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who was imprisoned after his website published secret government documents in the 2010s, paid tribute to Francis with his family.“Now Julian is free, we have all come to Rome to express our family’s gratitude for the Pope’s support during Julian’s persecution,” read a message on social media attributed to his wife, Stella Assange. The post said that the pope had written to Mr. Assange while he was in prison. More

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      Standing With History to Say Goodbye

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      As a reporter, I often observe from a press box or the sidelines. This time, I decided to join the masses.I never had the chance to say hello. But I stood in line to say goodbye.After Pope Francis died, my editors asked me to fly to Italy in advance of a move next month to take up the post of Rome bureau chief. I recently finished an eight-year tour in Tokyo and had thought I would cover the twilight of Francis’s term.Instead, after arriving Thursday night to help report on the funeral and upcoming Conclave to elect Francis’ successor, I wandered over to St. Peter’s Square on Friday morning. I wasn’t planning to linger. I hadn’t picked up my press badge yet, and had read my colleagues’ stories about people waiting for hours to pass before Pope Francis’ coffin.Once I joined the flow of the faithful, I didn’t want to leave the line. I felt an undeniable pull to stay. It was a holiday in Italy and many locals stood to wait along with thousands of tourists and pilgrims. I heard Italian, Spanish, English and many other languages. There were nuns in their habits, older people in wheelchairs, youth groups dressed in identical T-shirts and carrying matching drawstring backpacks.Despite the heavy police presence, the order was loose, with some people weaving in and out and passing ahead, as if on a congested freeway on a weekend. There was not much grumbling, perhaps in deference to the solemn reason we were there.Mourners standing in wait along with thousands of tourists and pilgrims. James Hill for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Francis Wanted a Church of the Poor and Put It Into Practice

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      Around St. Peter’s Square, the pope offered services to the homeless and migrants, in ways that often did not go down well with his fellow clerics.Throughout his papacy, Francis was an outspoken advocate for the downtrodden. Shortly after he was elected in 2013 he said, “How I would like a church that is poor and for the poor.”But Francis, who died on Monday at 88, didn’t just pay lip service.When the vehicle carrying his coffin pulls up at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he will be buried on Saturday, a group of “poor and needy” people will be waiting on the steps, the Vatican said this week. After all, the statement added, the pope “had chosen the name Francis to never forget them.” St. Francis of Assisi renounced his wealth to live in poverty.Marginalized groups will be present at the funeral, the Vatican said Friday.One of the first people to pay their respects when Francis was brought to St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday was Sister Geneviève Jeanningros, who until last year lived in a camper in a fairground outside Rome, serving those in need. She was in regular contact with Francis, who visited the fairground, and images of her weeping in front of his coffin moved many.Sister Geneviève Jeanningros, center in blue, was one of the first people to pay their respects to Francis.Pool photo by Alessandro Di MeoCloser to his own home, Francis “strongly supported” transforming the Vatican post office located on the right side of the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square into a free medical clinic for the homeless and for undocumented migrants. The clinic opened in 2018 and averages 100 visits a day, said its director, Dr. Massimo Ralli.“It’s putting the Gospel into practice because caring for people is one of the aspects of charity,” said Dr. Ralli. “So it absolutely mirrors the message of the Holy Father toward the least.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cardinal Roger Mahony, Accused of Hiding Sex Abuse, Will Help Close Pope Francis’ Casket

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      Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who was accused of covering up cases of abuse as archbishop of Los Angeles, will have an official role in the ceremonies around Francis’ funeral.An American cardinal who was accused of covering up cases of sexual abuse by priests and was later stripped of some duties, is set to play an official role in the ceremonies surrounding Pope Francis’ funeral.Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, will participate in the closing of the pope’s casket at St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday evening and in his burial at the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on Saturday, according to Vatican announcements.The cardinals taking part were chosen based on seniority, a spokesman for the Vatican, Matteo Bruni, said at a news briefing on Thursday.Cardinal Mahony, 89, was the archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until his retirement from the Roman Catholic Church in 2011. In 2013, internal church personnel files released as part of a civil case revealed that Cardinal Mahony had played a role in covering up cases of sexual abuse by priests.The documents show that Cardinal Mahony and others worked to protect abusive priests from punishment and withhold evidence of sexual abuse from law enforcement agencies. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the United States, also sent priests who had molested children out of state for treatment, in part because therapists in California were legally obligated to report evidence of child abuse to the police, according to the documents.In 2007, the Los Angeles archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to settle claims from more than 500 victims, the largest settlement for priest sexual abuse at the time. Last year, the church agreed to pay another $880 million to settle abuse claims from 1,353 people.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More