It was 20 years ago today that Pope St. John Paul II passed away at the age of 84. His 26-year and five-month papacy is the second-longest in Church history and it gave him a lot of time to travel and influence many. Gus invites listeners to call in and share their memories of the late pontiff.
Also, Dr. Matthew Bunson of EWTN News calls in to talk about the continued health challenges of Pope Francis who is now back at his residence. Gus asks Dr. Bunson about the news article that came out where one of his doctors talked rather candidly about two points where it didn’t look like Pope Francis wasn’t going to survive his bout with double pneumonia. Dr. Bunson also provides an update on Fr. Marko Rupnik, the Slovenian priest-artist accused of sexual abuse by approximately 20 women. The disgraced priest has a series of mosaics that deck the walls and doors of the shrine at Lourdes. The ones on the door were covered up by the shrine earlier this week. They wrap it up with the Supreme Court’s examination of the State of Wisconsin denying Catholic Charities’ tax exemption status.
Later, Tess Livingstone calls in to the show. She is the author of the new Ignatius Press book, “George Cardinal Pell: Pax Invictus” and Gus had her on a couple months ago when it was about to be released, but there’s some interesting news about the late cardinal that she tells Gus about. Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Australia recently credited the apparently miraculous survival of a lost child in Arizona to the intercession of Cardinal Pell who died in 2023. An 18-month-old boy was recently discharged from a Phoenix hospital after going 52 minutes without breathing after falling into a pool and had no signs of damage to his brain or lungs. While he was in intensive care, his parents prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Pell whom they had met when he visited Phoenix on a book tour in December 2021. The boy’s uncle, a Catholic priest, also reached out to Pell’s former secretary in Rome, Fr. Joseph Hamilton, who also prayed for his former boss’ intercession. Tess breaks it all down for Gus and his listeners.
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