Rome & the World: Pope meets Apple CEO at the Vatican

Tuesday 4 October 2022
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1. Pope Francis meets Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Vatican
2. Order of Malta: "The power of the Grand Master has no more barriers”
3. Russian Church says its relations with the Vatican are frozen
4. Cardinal Koch cancels trip to Germany 
5. In Portugal, abuse and questions about Bishop Belo, Nobel Peace Prize winner
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Pope Francis received for the second time Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, on October 3. Their first meeting at the Vatican was in January 2016. As is customary, nothing has been revealed about this private audience between the Argentine Pontiff and the CEO of the tech brand listed on the stock market at more than $3 trillion. However, it is known that Pope Francis is keen to meet leaders of the digital economy. Last June, he received Elon Musk, the eccentric chief of Tesla and Space X. In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and Eric Schmidt of Google visited the Vatican. Perhaps these meetings are a way for the Argentine Pontiff to share with these important figures his fears and hopes for the future of the digital world. The article in the National Catholic Register explains that Tim Cook, before seeing the Pope, had passed through Naples where he spoke to students about 'artificial intelligence' and 'augmented reality.' He believes that in the future these technologies will touch everything in people’s lives. Cook’s excitement for this new era is not necessarily reflected in Francis’ views. In November 2020, the Argentinian Pope had asked to pray especially that "the progress of robotics and artificial intelligence may always serve humankind,” adding "we could say, may it “be human.”" This is probably what he reminded Tim Cook of yesterday. 

NCRegister, English

Interviewed by the website Cicero, German journalist Constantin Magnis, author of a book on the crisis facing the Order of Malta, sheds new light on the imposition of the Order's new constitution by Pope Francis, which he sees as the consequence of a long power struggle within the Order between the Germans, the richest and most powerful, allied with the Swiss, the English and the French on the one hand, and the Italians, the Americans and the "professed" (the Order's religious branch) on the other. The first camp, relying on the important German network of "Maltesers," argued for a more secular direction of the Order, focused solely on its humanitarian mission. The Germans constantly questioned the way the Order was governed, as it was entrusted only to professed knights. "Some of them still live in such a princely manner in the Roman Magistral Palace, as if the French Revolution had never happened," says Constantine Magnis, referring to unflattering rumors about them. The reform undertaken by Francis, the journalist argues, gives the knights even more power, whereas the German camp was asking for real decentralization. "The power of the Grand Master no longer has any barriers," Magnis explains. Thanks to "very good lobbying by the Italians," the Pope went along with their position, especially because he was put off by the wealth of the Germans. Therefore, he has given full power to a group where Italian traditionalism is allied with American conservatism, a paradox according to the journalist. Magnis argues that the Pope’s position is explained by his past, as he apparently lived "an episode" in Argentina where members of the Order tried "to overthrow him" when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. The Vatican's takeover of the Order, which has had its status reduced to a centralized religious order, makes its future precarious. “If things go wrong, it can always swallow the Order whole,” the journalist says. 

Cicero, German

3. Russian Church says its relations with the Vatican are frozen

"Lately, unfortunately, I have to say that our relations are practically frozen," confided the 'Minister of Foreign Affairs' of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony, on a program on Russia-24 TV. 

Interfax, English 

4. Cardinal Koch cancels trip to Germany 

The head of the Council for Promoting Christian Unity has canceled a trip to Germany after negative reactions - including from bishops - to his statement on the German Synod. 

The Pillar, English 

5. In Portugal, abuse and questions about Bishop Belo, Nobel Peace Prize winner

The Portuguese bishops apologized this weekend for years of abuse. A delicate sequence of events in the context of the revelations concerning Bishop Belo of East Timor, reports Associated Press. 

Associated Press, English