Has passed from this mortal coil. He died yesterday morning, Rome time apparently due to a stroke and heart attack.
(AP: Alessandra Tarantino)
From Fox News-
Pope Francis’ will, which was released after his death on Monday, outlined his desire to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore, a basilica in Rome.
One of Rome’s four papal basilicas, seven popes are buried at Santa Maria Maggiore (which translates to Saint Mary Major in English).
Francis will be the first pope buried outside the Vatican in over 100 years, and the first Pope buried at Santa Maria Maggiore in over 350 years.
The last time a pope was buried outside the Vatican was in 1924. Pope Leo XIII died in 1903 and was initially buried in the Vatican in 1903; his remains were later moved to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome in 1924.
May he rest in peace.
Next is nine days of mourning, followed by his burial, and the Conclave of 136 Cardinals under the age of 80, who will choose the next Pope, however long that may take.
Well, obviously Fox News relied on Google Translate:
In the phrase “Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore” the word “maggiore” would better be translated as “greater” or “older”.
With the sometimes odd placement of adjectives in Italian, the “maggiore” probably applies to the Basilica – so that would render it “The Greater Basilica of Saint Mary” in English, although “The Basilica of Saint Mary the Elder” could be valid.
Sendarius- Once again Google bites one in the butt…sigh
Don’t fret – I only started learning Italian about a year ago (using Duolingo) because the wife and I were planning a long trip to Italy and the Western Med.
My family’s legends say that, as a child, I spoke Italian before I spoke English because I was farmed off (for babysitting) on the nonna next door when my mother went back to work. Allegedly Mum often had to ask the neighbour what the heck I was saying.
From the way so much of the language came back to me, those legends might very well be correct. 🙂
As an aside, the trip went really well, but, oh boy, was my wife pissed at me whenever I had a conversation in Italian with the locals – she didn’t understand a single word (unless it was pizza, vino, or cappuccino).
Don’t know why someone decided US flags should be flown at half mast for a foreign religious leader who was critical of our policies.
Gerry- He ‘was’ the leader of the largest ‘denomination’ in the world, and Trump could not ignore that unless he wanted to set all those Catholics against him, IMHO.
A pretty large contingent of Catholics were already set against him(and I don’t mean Trump).