Pope's work during convalescence includes clearing path for saints from Venezuela, Papua New Guinea

News

Pope's work during convalescence includes clearing path for saints from Venezuela, Papua New Guinea

2025-04-01 22:27 Last Updated At：22:31

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis spends part of his days at his desk working and concelebrates Mass daily in his private chapel, the Vatican said Tuesday, in signs of continued improvements during his convalescence at the Vatican after beating life-threatening double pneumonia.

“The pope is continuing physical and respiratory therapy, with the expected results, which means his voice is also improving," the Vatican said. “There is obviously also time for work, which the pope does partly sitting at a desk.”

That included clearing the path to canonization for the first saints to hail from Venezuela and Papua New Guinea, as well as an archbishop killed during the massacres of Armenians in 1915.

The decrees were approved last Friday in coordination with the curia, or Vatican hierarchy, from Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel where the 88-year-old pope's apartment is located.

Announced on Monday, they relate to the canonization of Peter To Rot, a layman from Papua New Guinea who was declared a martyr for the faith after he died in prison in World War II, Venezuelan religious founder Blessed María del Monte Carmelo and Archbishop Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was executed during the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 along with 13 priests when they refused to renounce their faith.

Maloyan was among an estimated 1.5 million people killed in the events, which are widely viewed by scholars at the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Blessed María del Monte Carmelo, born Carmen Elena Rendíles Martínez, founded the Congregation of the Handmaids of Jesus. The miracle attributed to her intercession involved a young woman in Caracas who was cured of a heart condition.

The Vatican, which has reduced its updates on the pope's health to twice weekly, said he remains in a good mood and continues to receive greetings of affection from the faithful.

An X-ray this week shows a “slight improvement” in a lingering lung infection, the Vatican said. Doctors have said that the pope has recovered from the pneumonia, but that a fungal infection in his airways would take months to clear under pharmaceutical treatment.

Francis hasn't had any official visitors since returning on March 23 to the Vatican, although the doctor who coordinated his hospital treatment at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, visited him last Wednesday and intends to make weekly visits to monitor his recovery. He is being attended at the Vatican by his regular medical team.

Doctors have ordered two months of rest to fully recover and to avoid large gatherings. The Vatican hasn't yet said whether the pope would be able to participate in any celebration during Holy Week leading up to Easter on April 20. On Wednesday, the Vatican will mark the 20th anniversary of St. John Paul II's death with a Mass.

Alfieri said that the pope was near death during an acute respiratory crisis eight days after his Feb. 14 hospitalization, and that both the pope and his primary medical caregiver consented to “decisive” measures despite the risks that it posed to his organs.

The Vatican on Tuesday also released an audio message from the pope released before his hospitalization. Speaking in Spanish, the pope said he "would like for us to look less at screens, and look each other in the eyes more! Something's wrong if we spend more time on our cell phones, than with people.''

He urged people to use "technology to unite, not to divide,'' including to help the poor, the sick and the disabled, and to help care for the planet.

The pope was last seen upon his release from the hospital, appearing frail and his voice weak as he greeted well-wishers from a Gemelli hospital balcony. The Vatican previously released an audio recording of the pope in a wan voice thanking the faithful for their prayers, and a photograph of the pope concelebrating Mass inside his private chapel in the hospital, pictured from behind.

At Final Four, Houston slowing Duke's Cooper Flagg could come down to a stopper named Joseph Tugler

2025-04-05 06:35 Last Updated At：06:41

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Pretty much every basketball fan has heard of Duke's Cooper Flagg. Nowhere near as many have heard of Houston's Joseph Tugler.

If the Cougars are going to spring an upset over the Blue Devils in the all-1-seed Final Four on Saturday, it will almost surely be because one of the country's best defenders, Tugler, played a big role in holding down the country's best overall player, Flagg.

“Take away his right hand, don't let him get into his spin move, make him earn his shot,” Tugler said, in ticking off Houston's version of a scouting report that is similar to what has been tried by Duke's 38 previous opponents, with minimal success.

And this: “I can guard anybody if I put my mind to it.”

Coach Kelvin Sampson has a gritty team full of players like that.

A team built around stifling defense might not put a ton of clips on the weekly highlight packages, the way Flagg and the Blue Devils (35-3) do.

But a better illustration of what makes Houston (34-4) click might come from a viral video that shows a loose-ball drill the team runs, usually early in the season or, as the coach said, whenever someone needs it.

It starts with a ball being pushed onto the court — or with a bricked free throw — and devolves into chaos, with players diving on the floor, jumping on each other trying to gain possession. Tackling, it appears from the video, is allowed.

Tugler suggested that the losing “team” has to run. Sampson was less concrete on the rules of the drill as its purpose.

“Everything is a competition,” the coach explained. “But like our kids say, it’s not for everybody. But it is for the ones that are here.”

Asked to analyze Flagg's game, Sampson — in his 36th year coaching and at his third Final Four and second with Houston — started mentioning players his teams have faced over the years: Carmelo Anthony, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, Paul Pierce.

“This guy is right there with them,” the coach said. “It's hard to say what he's not good at.”

Flagg, the 18-year-old freshman who is averaging 18.9 points and 7.5 rebounds, picked up the AP player of the year award on Friday, along with the Oscar Robinson Award to add to his quickly filling trophy case.

He is virtually certain to be the top pick in the NBA draft later this spring.

Last weekend, Flagg played arguably the best game of his short college career — a 30-point, six-rebound, seven-assist masterpiece in a Sweet 16 win over Arizona. Two nights later, he was off target but still ended up with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists in a 20-point win over Alabama.

Tugler's honors: Big 12 defensive player of the year and winner of the Lefty Driesell Award given by College Insider Inc. to the nation's best defensive player. Since joining the starting lineup in December, he's averaged 1.9 blocks a game.

Some other Houston stats say a lot. The Cougars are rated first in the KenPom defensive efficiency category. On offense, they are ranked 360th out of 364 teams in possessions per 40 minutes, a figure that plays into the defense because the long possessions shorten games and cause teams to expend energy defending them.

The Cougars lead the nation in field goal percentage allowed (38.2%) and points allowed (58.3).

Duke coach Jon Scheyer, who has seen Houston in a scrimmage two years ago and in a 54-51 Sweet 16 win last season — before Flagg arrived — says the numbers don't fully do it justice.

“They have good individual defenders,” Scheyer said. “But I think, by far, the best thing they do is how they have five guys always moving together.”

Tugler described it that way, too. Always helping. Always moving together. Great defenders might not get as much love as the guys jacking up 3s, but Tugler doesn't mind. He says Houston's version of the “3” comes when it stops a team on three straight possessions.

“We call that the ‘kill stop,’” Tugler said. “After we get that third one, we always feel like, ‘Let’s take this over.'"

Sampson reminisced about his first head-coaching job at Montana Tech. He left Jud Heathcoate's staff at Michigan State and went 7-20 without winning a conference game in his first season.

“Jud calls up and said, ‘Hey, Kel, I just want to congratulate you. You’re the only coach ... that possibly could have taken Montana Tech from obscurity to oblivion,'” Sampson said.

Scheyer was surprised to learn that Flagg's mom, Kelly, has entered a pact with other team moms to get tattoos to commemorate a Duke national title if there is one. Will the coach participate?

“I’m making my wife get a tattoo with them if that’s what’s going to happen," Scheyer said. “I would even consider getting one if we win.”

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.