March 3, 2025

— Pope Francis

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Hey look, a chance to support the newsletter!

Sponsored by: FinanceBuzz​ Stop Throwing Out Money: Pay No Interest Until Nearly 2027 ​ If you have outstanding credit card debt, getting a new 0% intro APR credit card could help ease the pressure while you pay down your balances. Our credit card experts identified top credit cards that are perfect for anyone looking to pay down debt and not add to it! ​Click through to see what all the hype is about.

​

Please let me know here if you can't see the ads. Thanks!

↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑

Never tire

In 1929, an Italian railway worker named Mario José Bergoglio and his wife, Regina María Sívori left behind a comfortable life in order to escape the facist rule of Benito Mussolini.

They joined a wave of immigrants landing in Argentina, where there was a large community of Italian expatriates dating back to the 1850s. Living in Buenos Aires, they raised five children: Jorge Mario, Oscar Adrián, Marta Regina, and María Elena.

Their family was probably what we would consider lower middle class in terms of finances, and religious as their neighbors would have been, but not especially pious.

But at age 21, the oldest child Jorge, who had worked as a bouncer at a bar and then studied chemistry, suffered a life-threatening pulmonary condition that ultimately required the removal of part of one of his lungs.

That near-death experience was one of the things that led Jorge to decide to pursue the priesthood, and 67 years ago next week, to become a novice with the Jesuits.

You might have pieced this together, but Jorge Mario Bergoglio is much better known today as Pope Francis. He's 88 years old now. As of this writing, he's been in the hospital in Rome for 18 days, battling pneumonia and other ailments -- complicated by the surgery that saved his life back in 1957.

As a Catholic and someone who has at least some Jesuit education, I've been following his situation closely -- an understatement.

And, I was thinking back to right after Pope Francis became the pope, when I wrote several articles about his leadership style, and the way in which he seemed to be able to communicate with both Catholics and non-Catholics.

He was ordained in December 1969 (it takes a long time to become a priest through the Jesuits), but that was before I was born, so it adds up to more than a half-century of Sundays.

Granted, he probably said Mass more than once a week, but I was thinking that it would mean at least 2,600 Sunday homilies.

Also, did you know he actually did a TED Talk? Twice, actually. He didn't stand up on the dark stage; instead, I'm pretty sure he sat in the same chair at the same desk, in front of the same bookshelves for both of them.

There's no way I can do justice to this story in a short newsletter, but there's a quote he's repeated quite a few times and that has stuck with me:

Personally, I'm praying for the pope's recovery -- but if not that, for his rest and for another great pope to succeed him. And maybe to keep asking -- and giving -- forgiveness.

​If you aren't also subscribed to Understandably, you can follow me there!

Did you see ...

• Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is still "ready to sign" a U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal after leaving the White House without it being agreed. So much has happened since my last newsletter: a fractious Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, and pledges from the UK, France and other nations to form a "coalition of the willing" to defend Ukraine if the U.S. is no longer willing. (BBC)
• Dozens of wildfires raged across North and South Carolina on Sunday, prompting officials to issue evacuation orders and open emergency shelters as both states and much of the Eastern Seaboard contended with dry conditions and gusty winds. In South Carolina, 175 wildfires burned across the state, scorching over 4,200 acres of land and straining firefighting resources. (USA Today)
• It already has the world’s largest navy, but new satellite imagery shows that China is developing a huge nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that would rival the biggest vessel in the American fleet. The images of China’s Dalian shipbuilding facility in northeast China suggest that the new ship will allow fighter jets to be launched from four parts of the flight deck, leading analysts to conclude that the images suggest a new ship design — unlike anything now in the Chinese fleet. (NBC News)
• “Anora,” a strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending, was crowned best picture at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, handing Sean Baker’s gritty, Brooklyn-set screwball farce Hollywood’s top prize. (AP)
• A German artist who had planned to be in the U.S. for a two week trip has been held for more than a month so far in an ICE detention center, including solitary confinement for 9 days, because a border agent suspected she planned to work as a tattoo artist during her vacation, according to a report. (KPBS)
• In America’s most surprising cutting-edge classes, students pursue hands-on work with wood, metals and machinery, getting a jump on lucrative old-school careers: high-school shop classes revamped for for the 21st century. They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college. (WSJ)
• British scientists say they've achieved a fruity breakthrough: a banana that stays fresh for 24 hours after it's peeled. (Daily Mail)