| MIKE HOGAN,
EXECUTIVE DIGITAL DIRECTOR |
|
|
“Today, the Catholic Church is riven by an internecine power contest between conservatives and liberals that rivals the battle of the angels in Milton’s epic Paradise Lost.” With those words, veteran Vatican chronicler John Cornwell defined the stakes of a bizarre standoff between two then living popes: Benedict XVI, who stepped down but never quite stepped away, and Francis, who reportedly had to put up with his predecessor’s meddling. As the world prepares for Francis’s funeral, there’s no better time to revisit Cornwell’s devilishly dishy 2018 exposé. Also ahead: Luigi Mangione gets arraigned, RFK Jr. stretches the truth, and Pedro Pascal and Bill Maher fire shots (not at each other). On the bright side, it’s Friday! If you’ve enjoyed VF Daily’s inaugural week, send us some feedback at vfdaily@vanityfair.com. |
The 26-year-old accused of killing a health care CEO cut a silent but potent figure in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday. |
|
|
It’s time to put a cap on this nonsense. |
The Department of Health and Human Services secretary has been pumping out a steady stream of plans to “make America healthy again” that are based, well, not entirely in reality. |
The president has been mad at the New York State attorney general since at least 2019, when Trump accused her of “harassing all of my New York businesses,” and has since labeled her “racist,” “incompetent,” and “evil,” among many other things. |
|
|
Over a plate of double-egged fettuccine and two bottles of Antinori Chianti at our usual trattoria in Rome’s old city, the Vatican monsignor is bitching about Pope Francis: “He’s soft on the homosexuals, the lesbians, and the transsexuals. And how dare he criticize the Curia?… Accusing us of spiritual Alzheimer’s…just because his papacy is unraveling.”
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly resigned his papacy. He was the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years. Afterward, he did not, as many expected, depart for an obscure Bavarian monastery, clearing the way for his liberal successor, Francis, to clean house in the notoriously corrupt Vatican. Instead, he stayed put, still accepting the title “His Holiness,” still wearing the pectoral cross of the Bishop of Rome, still publishing, still massaging his record, still meeting cardinals, still making statements, still involved—setting the stage for a conflict that threatened to split the Catholic Church in two. |
|
|
|
