Farewell Brother Francis II :What the Western Media Overlooked About the Late Latin Pope of Rome "Updated"

I honestly didn’t know what to write this Sham El-Nassim, as the genocide in Gaza continues to unfold.

I certainly never imagined that on Easter Monday, I’d spend nearly half the day glued to the screen, following global reactions to the death of Pope Francis II.

In case you’ve been completely offline, Pope Francis passed away on Easter Monday at the age of 88, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. The Vatican confirmed his death was due to a stroke, which led to a coma and irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 1936-born was the first Latin American and Jesuit pope, serving since 2013.

According to most international media outlets, his papacy was marked by humility, a focus on social justice, and outreach to marginalised communities. He was also known for taking bold stands on climate change and economic inequality, reflecting his Jesuit roots.

That’s the version most Western media tells you.

However, they often overlook the truly exceptional qualities that made Pope Francis II a singular figure in modern Church history.

He was perhaps the first head of the Catholic Church to deeply and sincerely believe in interfaith coexistence—particularly with the Islamic and Arab worlds.

He recognized Palestinian Christians at a time when much of the West ignored them, refusing to acknowledge them as victims of Israel’s ethnic cleansing.

Pope Francis at the 'Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,' upon its inauguration in the Paul VI Hall
at St Peter's Square, in the Paul-VI hall at the Vatican on December 7, 2024. (AFP)

In what turned out to be his final sermon on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Though he did not read the homily himself—it was delivered by Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of liturgical ceremonies—the world understood: this was his last message, spoken in his final 24 hours.

And it mattered. It forced the media, even if only briefly, to turn its gaze back to the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.

Seen in Cairo : El Basilica of Heliopolis

On the occasion of Easter, here is a photo taken during Christmas of Our Lady of Heliopolis Co-Cathedral — also known as the Latin Cathedral of Our Lady of Heliopolis, the Basilica of the Holy Virgin, Basilique de Notre-Dame d'Héliopolis, or simply El Basilica in Cairo.

El-Basilica or Basilique de Notre-Dame d'Heliopolis 

This Roman Catholic church is located on Al-Ahram Square in Heliopolis. Designed in the Byzantine Revival style by French architect Alexandre Marcel, the cathedral was inspired by the Hagia Sophia and commissioned by Baron Empain through his Cairo Electric Railways & Heliopolis Oasis Company. It was completed in 1913.

When Valentina Tereshkova visited Egypt

A Little Break Post – Escaping the Depressing News from the Middle East and Beyond

In case you missed it, American pop star Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez (Jeff Bezos’ fiancée), and three other women travelled on Monday aboard a Blue Origin suborbital space tourism flight.

Blue Origin, owned and operated by Bezos, launched this all-female crew on a short journey beyond Earth's atmosphere. According to media reports, Sánchez personally selected the crew members for this flight.

This “trip” reached the Kármán line — the commonly accepted boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space — which lies at an altitude of 100 kilometres (62 miles).

As expected, the 10-minute flight — filled with awkwardly staged moments, especially those featuring Katy Perry — quickly turned into a meme fest online.

Some U.S. mainstream media outlets and social media users even went so far as to claim it was the first all-female trip to space.

That’s not only factually incorrect — it's also a bit offensive.

So, to set the record straight: the first "all-female space mission" wasn't in 2024. It happened in 1963, and the entire crew was Valentina Tereshkova.

Valentina Tereshkova and the Pyramids generated by Chat-GPT as risograph print 

The real pioneer of an all-female spaceflight was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who made history in June 1963.

Kodak Agfa presents: Cairo’s Ramadan Bazaar of Ahmed Maher Street or from Bab El-Khalk to Bab Zuweila Gate aka Taht el-Rab’a “Part.2”

It is like the last day of Ramadan, and I am really sorry to publish the second part of this post only now.

I should have posted earlier if it were not for the Ramadan procrastination, health issues, and work-life balance. It is not too late.

I am sorry that I am posting right now just as we are starting to re-watch the second season of the Gaza genocide again and watch live helplessly.

To be honest I am using this post as more of a runaway to escape the yet again footage and photos of killed children in hospitals.

I pray that when I finish this post a Ramadan miracle happens and ends this nightmare as soon as possible.

Now back to That el-Rab’a and that trip in that street from Bab El-Khalk to Bab Zuweila gate.

We stopped last time at the Ramadan Saint Patrons in Egypt: Bogy and Tamtam

Bogy and Tamtam, the saint patrons of Ramadan in Egypt 

Their facial expression may reflect many things in our time whether domestically or regionally or internationally.

Their statues on the street were like two ancient Egyptian statues guarding some ancient Egyptian King's tomb in some irony.

Despite the younger generations did not watch their shows in Ramadan as my generation had, many of them stopped and took photos with Ramadan’s most famous duo.

Snapping a photo with Bogy and Tamtam

Now you will know that you are near Bab Zuweila gate when you reach its famous walls or rather the walls of the Mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad.

Ramadan lanterns in the shadow of
Mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad Sheikh and Bab Zuweila

Bab Zuwayla or Bab Zuweila (Arabic: باب زويلة) is one of three remaining gates in the city walls of historic Cairo in Egypt. It was also known as Bawabat al-Mitwali or as Bab al-Mitwali or Bab al-Qus.

Ramadan Arabian Nights 2025: The Tale of Fatima, Halima and Karima “The world gives nothing to the needy” EP.30

Ramadan Karim and Happy Eid

Tonight, we will conclude our tale for this Ramadan, the “Tale of Fatima, Halima and Karima”.

We will soon learn the fate of the three sisters, as well as that of Mishkah and Rima — but first, let’s have our little chitchat.

I truly hope you enjoyed this year’s Ramadan tale and that you didn’t find it boring. And if you understand Arabic, I hope you also enjoyed the televised version of the story.

Most of all, I hope you took away its message: that the truth eventually comes to light, no matter how many try to bury it beneath lies.

And now, without further delay, here is the 702nd episode of our Arabian Nights Egyptian radio show — the 30th night of this year’s tale, and the final episode of The Tale of Fatima, Halima, and Karima.

Episode 30: The world gives nothing to the needy.

And when it was the second episode after the hundred and seventh night, on the following evening, King Shahryar took his seat in the council as he had the night before. Shahrazad entered at the appointed time, greeted him, and sat beside him. She then continued her narration, linking the beginning to the end as she brought the tale to its conclusion.

Shahrazad: “I have heard, O fortunate king of wise counsel, that Sultan Golan, the King of the Jinn, when the truth was revealed before him, and reality shone upon his face, rendered judgment upon the heroes of the tale and granted them the most beautiful ending.

All of this, O my lord, was recounted by Fatimah before Sultan Safwan, when Prince Wardan spoke of her to him. And the girl herself spoke, sighing and weeping, as all those present drew near to listen, seized by curiosity and astonishment, as she said:”

Fatimah: “Have you seen, O my lord? Have you seen how the world treats one?”

Sultan Safwan: “And then, O Fatimah?”

Fatimah: “Nothing, O my lord. I was in my father’s house, sitting alone. I mourned my fate and wept for my two sisters, whose whereabouts I do not know. In my sorrow and despair, I spoke to myself of them, longing for them to return to my memory.”

And Fatimah returned in her mind to that moment, whispering to herself:
“Where have you gone, Karima and Halima? I wonder — where are you now? Are you alive, or have you passed from this world?”

Ramadan Arabian Nights 2025: The Tale of Fatima, Halima and Karima “The Physician” EP.29

Ramadan Karim

Tonight, we will continue our tale, the “Tale of Fatima, Halima and Karima",, and know what Halima will do at King Golan’s court after getting that medicine for that sleeping prince, but first, we will not have our little chitchat as usual because we are near our finale.

And without further delay, here is the 701st episode of our Arabian Nights Egyptian radio show—or the 29th night in this year’s tale, The Tale of Fatima, Halima, and Karima.

Episode 29: The Physician

When it was the seven hundred and first night of the wondrous nights of Shahrazad, and the night that followed, King Shahriyar took his seat as he had done the evening before. Shahrazad came at her appointed hour, greeted him with peace, and sat beside him. Then she resumed her tale, drawing it nearer to its end.

She said:

“It has reached me, O fortunate king, wise in judgment and sound in counsel, that when Halima accompanied the Queen of the Serpents to the Valley of Herbs and Plants—where serpents and vipers dwell—she brought forth the plant known as al-Sardan. 

From its seeds, she extracted a healing ointment, then disguised herself in the form of a physician and went to Sultan Golan to treat Prince Karawan.

The Sultan and his jinn were astonished at the boldness of this young physician, yet he persisted and defied the proclamation. Thus, the Sultan ordered that he be led to the prince. There, the physician applied the ointment prepared from the seeds of al-Sardan. Abu Farrag’s words proved true, the treatment succeeded, and Prince Karawan’s health began to return.

And this is what we now behold.

In the chamber of the sleeping prince, after long years of affliction and restless torment, Karawan stirred. A deep pain ran through his body as though life were returning to limbs long abandoned. He moved slowly, awakening from a sleep that had seemed without end.

Beside him stood Halima in her guise as a young physician.

As the prince struggled to rise, she spoke quickly in a deepened, masculine tone, bidding him to wait and not strain himself. Karawan, wincing yet conscious, murmured that it seemed he had slept for far too long.

“It was the sleep of health and recovery,” the physician replied gently.

The prince looked at him with gratitude and asked whether he had kept vigil at his side.

Ramadan Arabian Nights 2025: The Tale of Fatima, Halima and Karima “The Valley of Herbs and Plants” EP.28

Ramadan Karim

Tonight, we will continue our tale, the “Tale of Fatima, Halima and Karima", and know what Halima will find at the Valley of Herbs and Plants, but first, we will have our little chitchat.

The Magical Valley of Herbs and Plants plays a role in tonight’s episode. Contrary to what one might assume, there is no mention of a magical valley or garden where plants speak in the original Arabic version of One Thousand and One Nights.

Those magical speaking plants appear instead in tales that were added to foreign-language translations of the book around the turn of the 18th century — in what later came to be known as the “orphan” Arabian Nights tales.

Nevertheless, believe it or not, the idea of speaking plants does have deeper roots — both in Persian culture, the cradle of the Arabian Nights, and in medieval Islamic intellectual tradition.

In Persian literature — and later in Ottoman and Arabic writing — there existed a genre known as munāẓara, or “disputation,” which featured debates between inanimate objects or living beings. Within this tradition developed what might be called a subgenre known as the “Debate of the Flowers.”

In medieval Persian poetry and prose, the rose speaks, the nightingale replies, the cypress boasts, and the tulip laments. These were not fairy-tale fantasies, but symbolic dialogues layered with philosophical and mystical meaning.

Whether in Persia or in Al-Andalus, these “speaking” plants were not magical beings in the literal sense. Rather, they were imagined as speaking through lisān al-ḥāl — the “language of their state” — a silent eloquence that praises God, as all living beings do according to Islamic tradition and the Holy Qur’an.

“And We made from water every living thing,” says the Holy Qur’an in Surah Al-Anbiya (21:30).

Medieval Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and the Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity) classified the soul into hierarchical levels. The vegetative soul (al-nafs al-nabātiyya) represented the most basic level of life, attributed to plants, which possess the capacities for growth and reproduction.

Because plants require water to grow and thrive, some Andalusi scholars argued that they must share in the same “essence of life” as animals and humans. To them, water was the carrier of the divine life force.

And now, without further delay, here is the 700th episode of our Arabian Nights Egyptian radio show—or the 28th night in this year’s tale, The Tale of Fatima, Halima, and Karima.