last papal visit to uk

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Holy See: Five years since the Papal Visit to the United Kingdom

The British Ambassador to the Holy See marks the 5th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s official visit to the UK

© Mazur/www.thepapalvisit.org.uk

On 16-19 September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI paid an historic visit to the UK. This was the first ever official Papal State Visit to the UK, as Pope John Paul II’s visit was a pastoral one.

To mark the 5th anniversary, the British Ambassador to the Holy See Nigel Baker said:

The State Visit to the UK by Pope Benedict XVI took our bilateral relationship to a new level. We have continued to build on that since, through Royal, ministerial and official visits and an intense bilateral engagement on the issues that matter - the Middle East, Ukraine, climate change, human rights, poverty and international development, human trafficking, geo-political conflict.

The British Embassy to the Holy See is accredited to the world’s most extensive soft power network. Arguably, Pope Francis is the only truly global figure in world affairs today. And only a Pope could have made a speech like that of Benedict XVI at Westminster Hall, the cradle of democracy, in which he called on “the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief…to enter into profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of civilization.

The Ambassador also reflected on the legacy of the Papal Visit:

Pope Francis understands implicitly the importance of the Holy See’s global dimension. Top level engagement, like the 2010 State Visit and The Queen’s visit to the Holy See in 2014, provide the canopy beneath which our bilateral and global relationship is flourishing.

The 2010 State Visit looked to the future; to how the UK and the Holy See might co-operate better to improve our planet, tackle poverty, and contribute to the common good. That objective remains as relevant and as necessary today as it did five years ago.

Follow @UKinHolySee #popeuk2010 to replay the visit

Pope Benedict XVI in the United Kingdom

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The Enduring Legacy of John Paul II’s 1982 Visit to Britain

“For the first time in history,” said Pope St. John Paul II after he stepped off the airplane, “a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

Joanna Bogle, February 16, 2022 – National Catholic Register

In 2022, the Church in Britain marks an important milestone in its long history: This May, it will be 40 years since the first visit of a pope to Britain.

And it almost didn’t happen.

There had been months of preparation, much debate and discussion in the media, elaborate rehearsals by choirs and cathedrals and Catholic organizations, the hiring of massive venues, including London’s famous Wembley Stadium — and then the Falklands war broke out, and the whole idea of a papal visit was called into question.

Most people in Britain knew little or nothing about the Falkland Islands, a small British colony in the South Atlantic. In April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands, swept the small British garrison aside, and announced that the islands were now in Argentinian control.  Britain responded by sending a Royal Navy task force, and effectively the British were at war.

As part of the anniversary, I have been dipping into archives and discovering the inside story of the emergency meetings and messages that went back and forth between Britain and Rome as the crisis deepened and the papal visit was at risk of being abandoned. There must have been a great deal of prayer. Pope John Paul II, of course, led the prayers for peace, and British and Argentinian bishops were summoned to Rome, where he celebrated a Mass with them all. And then came the climax of the last-minute rescue operation to save the situation: He flew to Argentina for a swiftly arranged papal visit, before going on to Britain.

It was clear throughout that the Pope was not only neutral but that he was vigorously promoting peace: This was his consistent message, and it never wavered. On this basis, he was able to fly to London’s Gatwick Airport, where, as planned in detail over the previous months, a large crowd, drawn from Catholic parishes across Surrey and Sussex, had gathered to greet him. I was among that crowd. I remember the early-morning start and the excitement as we all arrived in a chartered bus, and then the wait at the airport, where the Duke of Norfolk — by long-established tradition Britain’s senior Catholic layman — greeted the Pope at the airport steps.

This was not, it was emphasized, an official visit. This was a pastoral visit of the Pope to Britain’s Catholics. So no formal representative of the queen was at the airport, and there were no government officials. There was music, and we sang a welcoming hymn. Then there were speeches — and the history was made. The Pope summed it up when he proclaimed, “For the first time in history, a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In its own way, the tragedy of the Falklands War — more than 800 men, British and Argentinian, would eventually lose their lives in the fighting — helped to create a situation where old antagonisms dating back to the Reformation in Britain seemed to dwindle away. The papal visit became a true opportunity for a message of peace and goodwill, with anti-Catholicism of the old sort somehow at variance with a general recognition of the needs of the modern era. The whole visit had, in any case, been planned with ecumenical goodwill in mind, and there were some powerful moments, notably at Canterbury Cathedral, where the Pope prayed with Anglicans at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket.

And, yes, he did meet the queen — a courtesy visit, with tea at Buckingham Palace — with evident goodwill on both sides. Queen Elizabeth was wearing, I remember, a blue dress, and they were smiling and chatting as they emerged from the palace after tea. Postcards of the scene quickly became popular — I’ve still got mine.

The papal pilgrimage had the seven sacraments as its theme. At a packed Mass at Westminster Cathedral, the Pope baptized seven candidates of various ages, and then, after crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge, he arrived at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, which had been cleared of pews and filled with stretchers and wheelchairs bearing sick and disabled people from across Britain, and he administered the sacrament of the sick. And so it went on, across England and Wales and Scotland, with a penitential service, first Holy Communions, confirmations, ordinations and renewal of marriage vows. Vast crowds came, powerful moments of prayer experienced.

It was an unforgettable time. Looking back through the archives, something of the joy and excitement is still evident. So, too, are the changes since those days — the letters are typewritten (remember typewriters?) and there is just one reference to “a computer being installed” as a great innovation at one venue to store relevant information. Color photography relied entirely on film, paper and chemicals (some of the pictures have that curious greenish tinge that I remember well).  Fashions have, of course, changed: Ladies wore dresses, and there were even quite a lot of hats.

What did the papal visit achieve? A great deal. With its massive television coverage, it opened up an authentic vision of Catholic worship: from how Catholics pray to the centrality of the Eucharist. People saw what a baptism is and what is meant by the anointing of the sick. They saw the Pope as a bishop, a man in a white robe preaching about peace and the importance of family life and family prayer. Old notions of the Pope as a sinister foreign figure intent on imposing some sort of political rule were recognized as propaganda from a vanished era.

And that 1982 visit was followed, in the next century, by an official state visit by Pope Benedict XVI, where among much else, he addressed Parliament with a magnificent setting out of the respective roles of Church and state centered on a ringing call for true religious freedom. He led young people in a massive unforgettable night vigil of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in London’s Hyde Park, and he beatified John Henry Newman in a glorious Mass at Cofton Park on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The year 2022 sees another major milestone in Britain’s story: the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She has always been clear in her commitment to the Christian faith and spoken of it as central to her life and service.

So much has changed in the 70 years of her reign. While there has been progress in fields that include health and general prosperity, there is also much that is cause for great sadness: Britain is a country with too much violent crime, many unhappy young people, a drug crisis, a worrying suicide rate, and a collapse in a general understanding of many basic moral values, including the value of human life itself.

But the Christian message is still on offer and is the message that holds the hope of renewal; and in a country with a long history, and a tradition of marking anniversaries and jubilees, 2022 brings scope for missionary activity on a new scale. We must pray the opportunity is taken up. A reminder of that historic papal visit four decades ago is part of that.

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The Papal Visit

Pope Benedict XVI in the UK

John Paul II

In the summer of 1982, Pope Saint John Paul II travelled to Great Britain for an historic six-day tour that saw him greet and bless hundreds of thousands of people at sixteen different venues.

Also in Benedict XVI in the UK

It was the first time that a pope had visited these lands in over 400 years, since before the Reformation, making his kissing of the ground on arrival at Gatwick airport on the 28 May a moving start to the occasion.

The first stop was Westminster Cathedral and from there he travelled to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the sick at Southwark Cathedral, religious at Roehampton, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Robert Runcie in Canterbury Cathedral, representatives from the Polish Community at Crystal Palace and thousands of young people at National Youth Rally in Cardiff, to mention just some of the highlights.

A day-and-a-half of his visit was spent north of the border in Scotland. The Holy Father began in Edinburgh greeted by thousands of young people at Murrayfield. This was followed by his attendance at a gathering for priests and religious. On 1st June he was met by Christian leaders, he then visited Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell, addressed the Bishops’ Conference in Edinburgh, before travelling to Glasgow to meet students at St Andrew’s College, finishing with an open air Mass at Bellahouston Park.

• Gatwick Airport

Pope Saint John Paul II, was greeted by Cardinal Basil Hume and the then Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, shortly after his plane landed at London Gatwick Airport. In kneeling to kiss the British soil his thirteenth Pastoral Visit began.

• Pope John Paul II's welcome address at Gatwick Airport
• Westminster

Having greeted and blessed well-wishers after his address at the opening ceremony, Pope Saint John Paul II took a special train from Gatwick to celebrate Mass at Westminster Cathedral which focussed on the Baptismal Rite.

• John Paul II Holy Mass In Westminster Cathedral

Following lunch at Buckingham Palace, Pope Saint John Paul made his way to St George’s Cathedral, Southwark. He was met by the waiting sick and led a service of anointing, spending considerable time speaking to those who had gathered.

• Pope John Paul II at Southwark’s Cathedral

Ecumenical relations formed a key part of the first Papal trip to Britain for more than 400 years - since before the Reformation.

• Homily at the ecumenical celebration in Canterbury Cathedral
• Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium provided the setting for the first open-air Mass of Pope John Paul II's visit to Britain. The stadium, which has since been redeveloped, was the venue for England's 1966 World Cup football triumph.

• Pope John Paul II to the religious men and women of England and Wales
• Holy Mass for the Renewal Of The Baptismal Promises
• Crystal Palace

Undeterred by the early start, 24,000 members of the Polish Community in England and Wales headed to the Crystal Palace National Sports centre to meet and pray with their fellow countryman.

• Pope John Paul II addresses the 24,000-strong Polish crowd

Pope Saint John Paul II flew from London by helicopter to Coventry Airport. On arrival the Pope was met by the newly installed Archbishop of Birmingham, Maurice Couve de Murville, and a crowd of over 350,000 people.

• Pentecost Mass at Coventry Airport

A million people lined the route Pope Saint John Paul II took into the city of Liverpool following his helicopter journey from Coventry to Liverpool Speke Airport in 1982.

• Liverpool Airport
• Metropolitan Cathedral

On Saturday, 29 May 1982, more than 4,500 religious gathered at Digby Stuart Training College, Roehampton to hear the Pope John Paul II's address.

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At Knavesmire Racecourse in York, Pope Saint John Paul II celebrated Marriage and Family Life with a crowd of more than 190,000 people.

• York Racecourse

Three quarters of an hour before Mass at Manchester's Heaton Park on Monday morning, Pope John Paul II met the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Sir Immanuel Jakobovits at the Convent of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth in Manchester.

• Pope John Paul II ordains priests in Manchester in 1982

Pope John Paul II spent a day-and-a-half of his tour north of the border in Scotland. Although the time was short, the Pope visited a total of seven venues and greeted hundreds of thousands of people.

• Scottish Church Leaders
• Scottish Youth
• Scottish Priests and Religious
• Saint Joseph's Hospital

Pope John Paul II flew from Scotland to Cardiff to conclude his time in Britain, kissing the tarmac as he landed on Welsh soil.

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Controversy Accompanies Historic Papal Visit To U.K.

Sylvia Poggioli

Children arrive for a rehearsal at Glasgow's Bellahouston Park ahead of Thursday's visit by Pope Benedict XVI. The pope will celebrate Mass in the park following his visit to Edinburgh, where he will be met by Queen Elizabeth II. Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images hide caption

The first state visit by a pope to Britain comes at a low point in relations between Catholics and Anglicans and under the weight of the clerical sex abuse crisis.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Scotland on Thursday morning to spend four days in Britain -- the first visit by a pope in nearly 30 years and the first papal state visit since King Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 over a divorce.

The trip includes a meeting with Queen Elizabeth in Scotland, a speech in Westminster Hall, an ecumenical service with the archbishop of Canterbury and the beatification of a 19th century Anglican who converted to Catholicism.

Looming over the visit are 400 years of religious tensions and more contemporary divisions.

Particular Challenges For Benedict

Protests are being planned by gay activists, secularists, advocates of female ordination and militant atheists -- some of whom have called for Benedict’s arrest on charges of covering up sex abuse of minors by priests.

Pope Benedict XVI (right) prays during his weekly general audience Wednesday at the Vatican. Benedict takes his campaign to revive Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe to Britain on Thursday. He faces a daunting task in a nation largely at odds with his policies and where disgust over the church sex abuse scandal runs high. Alessandra Tarantino/AP hide caption

Pope Benedict XVI (right) prays during his weekly general audience Wednesday at the Vatican. Benedict takes his campaign to revive Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe to Britain on Thursday. He faces a daunting task in a nation largely at odds with his policies and where disgust over the church sex abuse scandal runs high.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi is unfazed.

“There have always been protests by some groups during papal visits,” he says. “There will be more groups on this trip -- such as atheists and anti-papists."

Lombardi adds, “It’s normal in a pluralistic society like the British one. We are not worried because we believe the media has overblown reality."

But a visit to such a pluralistic society is particularly challenging for a pope who has set as his mission the re-evangelization of Europe.

Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for the British Catholic weekly The Tablet, says the pope’s main goal is "to try to help make a space in society for religion, for faiths."

"It is very clear that [the pope] believes that the Catholic Church and Catholics within that church have been too lax in presenting the faith in reasoned, rational, argued terms that can stand up toe to toe in the arena of ideas," Mickens says.

Weekly church attendance among Britain’s 5 million Catholics has been dropping steadily, as it has elsewhere in Europe. In fact, many tickets to papal events -- which unusually carry a price tag -- have gone unsold.

Anglican-Catholic Relations A Key Issue

Just 11 months ago, the Vatican stunned the Church of England when -- without consulting the archbishop of Canterbury -- it offered to take in dissident Anglicans angered over their church’s consecration of female and homosexual bishops.

Anglican critics see it as part of a centuries-old campaign by Rome to annex the Anglican Church.

Vatican analyst Marco Politi says Catholic-Anglican relations are at their lowest point in recent history, as the Vatican tries to woo Anglican conservatives.

“All the issues of modernity which already in the Catholic Church the pope is fighting are just the reasons for which he is embracing this traditionalist part of the Anglicans,” Politi explains.

Benedict has the dubious precedent of having caused offense during several of his foreign travels: his remarks in Germany describing Islam as violent, which outraged Muslims; and his claim on his way to Africa that the use of condoms spreads AIDS.

Some Vatican watchers say Benedict’s decision to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, a priest in the Church of England who converted to Catholicism in the 19th century, could further strain relations with Anglicans.

The pope has described the decision as an act of ecumenism. But Politi points out that Benedict has always upheld the primacy of Catholicism -- “that the only real church is the Catholic Church, and that the Protestant churches for him are not real churches but only Christian communities.”

God's Somewhat Surprising 'Rottweiler'

Benedict will not receive the warm welcome given to his charismatic predecessor Pope John Paul II in 1982. Many of the British media have been openly hostile to the papal visit, which is costing British taxpayers some $18 million.

But The Tablet 's correspondent Mickens says Britons may be surprised when they see firsthand the man described as "God’s Rottweiler." “They will see someone who speaks with a lilting voice, soft-spoken, and he’ll look sweet and have white hair," Mickens says.

“But in the end," he adds, "the words will remain and he is going to have to choose his words carefully on this visit, words that are said with great kindness in the voice but really have a sharp bite to them on the page."

John Paul’s 1982 visit to Britain an "extraordinary event"

By Vatican News

“Saint John Paul II’s visit [to Britain in 1982] was an extraordinary event in the life of the Catholic Church in the UK,” writes Sally Axworthy, the British Ambassador to the Holy See.

Axworthy notes that it was the first time a reigning pontiff had ever set foot on British soil, and that the visit “marked a historic moment in UK-Holy See relations”.

The Holy Father visited nine cities in England, Wales and Scotland over the course of six days. In addition to his meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, highlights of the visit included addresses to young people in Cardiff and Edinburgh, and an open-air Mass in Glasgow that drew more than 300,000 participants.

“Ecumenism was central to his visit,” Axworthy says, noting John Paul’s visit to Canterbury Cathedral, where he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.

“By attending the cathedral founded by St Augustine of Canterbury on his mission to England from Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, St John Paul II made a powerful statement of the churches' determination to walk forward together,” she writes. “This ecumenical dialogue has flourished ever since.”

John Paul’s 1982 visit to Britain paved the way for future “great moments” in the life of the Church in the UK, including Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in 2010 and the canonisation of St John Henry Newman in 2019. The “legacy” of that visit, says Axworthy, “was the strengthening and deepening of the relationship between the UK and the Holy See that is bearing fruit today”.

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Britain forty years after St. John Paul II’s historic visit

Reflecting on the 1982 papal visit forty years later, I see much change — some good, but a great deal that is very bad — in Britain since that time.

January 15, 2022 Joanna Bogle The Dispatch 1 Print

This year will see the 40 th anniversary of the first ever visit of a pope to England, Scotland, and Wales. Given the complicated history of the Catholic Church in Britain, it is truly remarkable that the anniversary somehow doesn’t seem remarkable at all. The May 28-June 2, 1982 joyful visit of Pope – now Saint – John Paul II was followed by another papal visit, this time at the express invitation of HM the Queen, and Pope Benedict XVI arrived in September 2010 to be greeted by the Sovereign at her palace in Scotland and address a great gathering at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

History rolls on, and in this anniversary year we can note how the papal visits have been embedded into our national story and how ordinary it all seems. Stone slabs at Westminster Cathedral – one at the foot of the sanctuary, another at the main door – commemorate the two visits. The vision of religious freedom affirmed by Pope Benedict in his magnificent address at Westminster is recognized as one that brilliantly articulates the authentic teaching of the Church and affirms the truth recognized by all who seek genuine goodwill.

St John Paul’s visit could have been so easily derailed. Britain was at war. The Falklands crisis had erupted and the Royal Navy made its way to the South Atlantic to confront Argentinian claims. Some magnificent diplomacy on all sides achieved something that might have seemed impossible: the Pope made a last-minute visit to Argentina before traveling to London, so that Catholics in both countries could hear a genuine message of peace from the successor of St Peter. The visit to Britain thus had a pastoral quality, with nothing triumphalistic about it: it was not a time for scoring points.

When I look back at my younger self, cheering among the crowd at Gatwick Airport as the papal plane landed and watching on television as the Pope went to Buckingham Palace for tea, I am amazed at how little I realized about the significance of it all. Some of us at that time simply saw the pope as someone who should say things we wanted to hear – about the wrongfulness of abortion, for example – within a sort of zone of this-is-what-popes-should-do. We didn’t see things with the eye of history; perhaps that’s simply something that is acquired with age.

We liked being indignant about things, and so were on the lookout for anything we thought was too trendy or “wishy-washy” – though when I was urged to share indignation about Pope John Paul II being open and friendly with the Anglicans at Canterbury I found that on the contrary it all looked rather valuable. Now, four decades on and with the creation of the Ordinariate by Benedict XVI it all looks prophetic: Anglicans can now come into full communion with the Catholic Church, bringing their liturgical and other traditions with them. Upon arriving at Gatwick Airport, John Paul II sounded a central theme of his visit: reconciliation:

At this moment of history, we stand in  urgent need of reconciliation : reconciliation between nations and between peoples of different races and cultures; reconciliation of man within himself and with nature; reconciliation among people of different social conditions and beliefs, reconciliation among Christians. In a world scarred by hatred and injustice and divided by violence and oppression, the Church desires to be a spokesman for the vital task of fostering harmony and unity and forging new bonds of understanding and brotherhood.

St John Paul had been Pope for just four years at the time of that history-making visit. He had already survived two assassination attempts, one in St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, and another a year later on May 12, 1982, at Fatima where he went to give thanks and was attacked by a schismatic priest. He was already becoming the world’s voice of conscience, and over the next years his magnificent encyclicals and other writings (and many addresses) would ring out the truth about the glory of God and the dignity of man.

And those years were often thrilling. John Paul II had yet to achieve the quite extraordinary invention of World Youth Day. In 1982 great gatherings of that sort were still seen as reserved for political rallies or popular music festivals, but he would bring about the astonishing sight of vast crowds of young people from across the world kneeling in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament or lining up before relays of confessors to receive absolution. He would bring about dramatic change in Eastern Europe. In 1982 that was already on the way, as his 1979 pilgrimage to his native Poland had set in train the events that would lead to the formation of Solidarity, and eventual freedom from the Communism that had been imposed since 1945.

Reflecting on the 1982 papal visit forty years later, I see the many changes in Britain since that time. There is a great deal that is very bad: continued destruction of babies in their mothers’ wombs, plus massive publicly-funded promotion of bizarre notions of confused sexual identity, and a general withering of standards of excellence in academia. And there is a new surge of constant sniping at cherished values and symbols of historical achievement, and of course an increase of misery as marriages and families collapse under all sorts of pressures.

Is there anything good to note? Not much: the Ordinariate, as mentioned, some new evangelistic initiatives (back in 1982 no one could have imagined a great National Eucharistic Congress on the scale that we had in 2018), and the fact that Christianity here isn’t dead, as I remember being repeatedly told, when younger, would be the case by the 21 st century.

“The most annoying thing about you, Joanna,” someone expostulated recently, “is that, especially about the Church, you are always wanting to see the good things.” I think, looking back, it is because, while I was still comparatively young, I encountered the message of St John Paul II.

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What Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel teaches us about God’s creation, woman and man

Denver, Colo., Nov 15, 2022 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Michelangelo’s artistic masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel broke new ground in portraying the dynamic creative acts of God, but his work also depicts the combined importance of men and women through all of sacred history, art historian Elizabeth Lev has said.

“The spirit of artistic adventure led the artist to experiment with a completely new vision of creation,” Lev said Nov. 12. “He took a book that had been painted, sculpted, mosaiced, and illuminated over and over again in the history of art and created something completely new.”

She spoke at the closing keynote Saturday evening at the fall conference of the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Lev teaches at the Rome campus of Duquesne University and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. Her speech, “Creation, Complementarity, & St. John Paul II in Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling,” focused on one of the key artistic treasures of Vatican City.

The 16th-century Florentine artist Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling and the upper section of its walls. This was the artist’s focus from 1508 to 1512. He later finished the Last Judgment above the chapel altar from 1535 to 1541.

The ceiling frescoes show the creation of the heavens and the earth, the creation of Adam and Eve, their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the great flood, and the rebirth of humankind through Noah.

Lev cited St. John Paul II’s description of Michelangelo’s work in his poem “Meditations on the Book of Genesis at the Threshold of the Sistine Chapel.”

“It is the book of the origins — Genesis,” the pope said. “Here, in this chapel, Michelangelo penned it, not with words, but with the richness of piled-up colors. We enter in order to read it again, going from wonder to wonder.”

Lev reflected on the first three panels depicting the creation of the world. These show “the mighty dynamic figure of God the Father at work.”

“It’s not what God creates, it’s that God creates,” she said. Michelangelo broke ground in portraying God as “physically engaged in creation.” For Lev, this offers “a preview of the Incarnation.”

Turning to Michelangelo’s famous depiction of the Creation of Adam, Lev noted that the artist depicts “just God and the creature formed in his likeness.” Adam is shown as “somewhat listless” in contrast with God’s energy. Adam is “sentient and awake but he has no will or strength or purpose to rise,” she said. “He looks completely passive and dependent despite that incredibly beautiful form.”

“It’s God who reaches towards man,” she continued. For Lev, the outstretched finger of God makes the viewer “almost lean forward in his seat waiting for that final Act of Creation, the divine spark, the Breath of Life that will release that latent energy and allow Adam to take his place as the greatest of creations.”

“This is the joy in humanity that permeates the Renaissance,” Lev said.

There is academic debate over a female figure shown in the Creation of Adam. As God the Father stretches out one arm to Adam, his other arm curls around a female figure. Some have identified this figure as Wisdom, some as Mary.

Lev suggested it is best to identify this figure as Eve, both because the figure provides visual balance to Adam and because her gaze “connects her more intimately with Adam.”

The creation of Eve from Adam, depicted next on the chapel ceiling, shows Eve emerging from Adam’s side with her hands clasped in prayer, an image of the Church and the personification of Mary, the “Second Eve.”

Lev cited St. John Paul II’s 1999 homily inaugurating the newly restored Sistine Chapel, after centuries of grime and soot were removed. The pope called the chapel the “sanctuary of the theology of the human body,” alluding to his catecheses offered from 1979 to 1984. The pope suggested that Michelangelo allowed himself to be guided by the Book of Genesis’ depiction of mankind in Eden: “the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.”

Before the fall, Lev commented, Michelangelo depicted Adam and Eve in the state of grace as “two of his most beautiful figures.”

“They are filled with dynamism. They’re buoyant. They’re luminous,” Lev said, adding that their bodies “suggest immortality.” After the fall, however, both of their bodies “lose their luminosity” and appear heavier, like a burden. Adam’s shoulder seems to force Eve into the background, “subjugating her.”

For Lev, the artistic depiction of the genealogy of Jesus Christ also deserves attention. The portrayal of the ancestors of Jesus Christ shows “a genealogy of men and women struggling from generation to generation.” These figures seem “more approachable” and “much more similar to candid family photographs.” Even though 22 women in Jesus’ genealogy are not named, Michelangelo pairs them with their husbands.

Lev noted that Michelangelo broke with artistic convention both by including mothers and by showing them as busy, everyday women “tending to toddlers, toilettes, and tasks.” His style of painting them with “incredible immediacy” adds observations of human nature: Eleazar’s wife holds the purse strings and the key to the house, and her husband looks “startled” as she surveys their son. Other depictions are “tender and intimate,” like the portrayal of the wife of Manasseh, who cradles a swaddled son while rocking an infant’s cradle.

Here, Lev drew on John Paul II’s 1995 “Letter to Women.” He wrote that womanhood and manhood are complementary at the physical, psychological, and even ontological level.

“It is only through the duality of the masculine and the feminine that the human finds full recognition,” the pope said. “To this unity of the two, God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life but the creation of history itself.”

Lev noted that the passing of generations “necessarily emphasizes the begetting of children.” This means that the complementarity of the sexes is essential for a population to form and for creation to continue.

In Michelangelo’s portrayal of the Last Judgment, the artist still looks back to creation but also breaks new ground. He placed Mary next to Christ, as “a foil to Christ’s sternness.”

“She is the picture of mercy gazing down towards the elect, placed by the wound in Christ’s side whence the Church sprang,” Lev said. “Mary is transfigured into the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave his life and to whom he cannot say no. She is the conduit to Christ, as Eve was the link between God and man in the creation of woman.”

For Lev, the Sistine Chapel shows the “incredible gift of creation” from the beginning of the world down through the generations, “through which all of us today are a part of that continuation of creation.”

In Memoriam: Ian Ker (1942-2022)

Fr. Ian Ker, the leading authority on the life and work of St John Henry Cardinal Newman, died in the early morning of November 5th in hospital in Gloucester, England not far from his home […]

Benedict XVI greets St. John Paul II’s long-time secretary on canonization anniversary

Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz visits Pope emeritus Benedict XVI at the Vatican on April 27, 2022. / Twitter @ArchKrakowska.

Vatican City, Apr 28, 2022 / 02:45 am (CNA). St. John Paul II’s long-time secretary visited Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on W… […]

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Papal visit to UK parliament confirmed by Holy See

Vatican City, Jul 5, 2010 / 11:02 am

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II and the episcopal conferences of the United Kingdom to visit in September, according to the spokesman of the Holy See. While the Pope's stop in the house of parliament has been confirmed, the most anticipated moment of the apostolic visit will take place on its final day.

The Holy See's spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, officially announced the trip in a Monday statement from the press office. This confirms what Pope Benedict had already told the bishops of England and Wales and those of Scotland during their separate "ad Limina" visits to Rome last February.

Pope Benedict's visit will begin in Scotland and last from Sept.16-19. Upon his arrival in Edinburgh on Thursday, he will meet with the Queen at the Royal Palace of Holyrood House, then that evening he will go to Glasgow to celebrate an open-air Mass in Bellahouston Park.

Later he will travel to London by plane where, on Friday Sept. 17, he will begin the day in prayer with representatives of religious congregations. After separate meetings with Catholic school children and religious leaders, he will be joined by a delegation of Catholic bishops in a meeting with an Anglican delegation led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

That afternoon, a much-anticipated encounter will be held in Westminster Hall, the United Kingdom's house of parliament, with members of British society, the Vatican statement confirmed. An ecumenical celebration will be also be held at the nearby Westminster Abbey.

Saturday Sept. 18, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass at Westminster Cathedral, visit a home for the elderly and preside over a prayer vigil in central London's Hyde Park.

On the final day of his visit to the U.K., Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Birmingham by helicopter, to preside over the centerpiece of his visit: the celebration for the beatification rite of Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman in Cofton Park.

Prior to the Holy Father's departure, he will meet with the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales at Oscott College, the home of the seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

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At a glance: Pope's visit to UK

• Published 18 September 2010

Pope Benedict arrived in the UK on 16 September for a four-day visit - the first official trip by a serving pontiff since 1982. Here is his remaining schedule.

SUNDAY 19 SEPTEMBER - BIRMINGHAM

0845 BST: The Pope will leave his accommodation in Wimbledon and fly by helicopter to Birmingham.

1000 BST: An invited audience of 65,000 will watch as the Pope's beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman takes place in Cofton Park.

The venue will open at 0200 BST with morning worship at 0810 BST. The beatification mass itself will continue until approximately 1200 BST.

Birmingham Council says those without a ticket are "advised to avoid the area around the park on Sunday 19 September" and watch the event on television instead. It is expected to be broadcast on BBC2, BBC Radio 4 and BBC WM.

The council says there are no plans to screen the mass in any public spaces in or around the city, although parishes are being encouraged to organise their own screenings in community halls.

Afternoon: Following a lunch, the Papal visit will conclude with a private meeting between the Pope and the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales in Oscott College.

1845 BST: Following a short ceremony at Birmingham airport, the Pope will depart for Rome.

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Who was the last Pope to visit Britain, who did he meet with and what events did he attend?

Pope Benedict XVI conducted a four-day tour of Britain during his state visit in 2010

• Published : 9:40, 26 Aug 2018
• Updated : 9:43, 26 Aug 2018

IT is a major part of a Pope's duties to visit dignitaries and followers in countries across the globe.

But when was the last time a Pontiff visited the UK — and who did he meet? Here is a rundown of Pope Benedict XVI's 2010 tour of Britain.

When was the most recent Papal visit to the UK?

Pope Benedict XVI visited the UK on a four-day tour from 16-19 September 2010.

It was the first Papal visit to Britain since 1982 when Pope John Paul II visited 16 UK cities.

But this was a pastoral rather than an official State visit.

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Who did Pope Benedict meet during the 2010 UK visit?

Pope Benedict's visit included meetings with the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

He also met politicians such as new Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron, the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, and leaders of the other main political parties.

He also conducted open air masses in Glasgow and Birmingham and a youth vigil in Hyde Park.

The main part of his stay Mass at Westminster Cathedral in London, attended by over 200,000 people.

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• Men's Basketball
• April 12, 2024 - 09:59 AM

Mark Pope Named Head Coach of Kentucky Men’s Basketball

LEXINGTON, Ky. – When his alma mater came calling, Mark Pope knew there was no place like home.

Pope, a captain of the University of Kentucky’s 1996 National Championship team, has returned to Lexington as the 23rd head coach of Kentucky’s storied men’s basketball program, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced Friday.

Pope is a nine-year head coaching veteran with stops at BYU and Utah Valley, amassing a 187-108 career record. His squads won 20 or more games in six of the last seven seasons and he has made six postseason appearances.

“Mark Pope not only brings an impressive record in nine years as a head coach, but also a love of the University of Kentucky and a complete understanding of what our program means to the people of our state,” Barnhart said. “As a captain on the ‘96 championship team, Mark was a beloved and respected teammate. As a head coach, he is highly regarded nationally as an innovator. His teams run a unique and dynamic up-tempo offense and they get after it on defense. He is a strong recruiter with international ties and a person of integrity.

“He fully embraces our high expectations and standards and I know that as our fans get reacquainted with Mark, they will be eager to join him on what promises to be an exciting ride.”

Pope returns to UK from Provo, Utah, where he compiled a 110-52 record (.679) during five campaigns at the helm of BYU. He took the Cougars to three postseason appearances, including two trips to the NCAA Tournament, and missed another bid when the 2020 event was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three of his five BYU teams finished the season ranked in the top 20 of the Ken Pomeroy efficiency ratings.

“The University of Kentucky is the pinnacle of coaching in college basketball. It’s the definition of blueblood program where hanging a banner is the expectation ever year,” Pope said. “Equally as important, UK changed my life forever as a human being. The love and passion I have for this program, this University and the people of the Commonwealth goes to the depth of my soul.

“I’m thankful to Dr. (Eli) Capilouto and Mitch Barnhart for this opportunity. I’m proud to be your next head coach and I can’t wait to do this together!”

Pope is coming off a 23-11 season in 2023-24. It was BYU’s first season in the Big 12 Conference and the Cougars’ 10-8 league record featured victories over No. 7 Kansas, No. 11 Baylor and No. 24 Iowa State. BYU’s first win in the Big 12, on January 13 at Central Florida, also marked Pope’s 100th victory as head coach of the Cougars.

The Cougars ranked third in the country with 11.1 made 3-pointers per game in 2023-24, and also ranked in the top 10 in assists per game (3rd) and assist-to-turnover ratio (6th). BYU led the Big 12 in scoring at 81.4 points per game. They were ranked as high as No. 12 in the AP Poll after going 12-1 in nonconference action, winning the Vegas Showdown, BYU’s first multi-team event title since 2011. Pope was named to the 2024 Naismith College Coach of the Year Late Season Watch List for his efforts.

Pope’s teams also hit the postseason in 2020-21, finishing with a 20-7 mark and making BYU’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2015. The Cougars were 24-11 in 2021-22 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament. The Cougars captured win No. 60 under Pope in January of ‘22, making him the fastest BYU coach to achieve the mark.

Pope began his head coaching stint at BYU in the 2019-20 season, tallying a 24-8 record, the most wins for a first-year coach in program history. He finished the season ranked No. 18 in the Associated Press poll and No. 16 in the USA Today/Coaches poll, becoming the first head coach at BYU to conclude the season with a national ranking in his first season. The Cougars finished second in the West Coast Conference with a 13-3 record. The Cougars also toppled No. 2-ranked Gonzaga, earning their best win over a ranked opponent inside their home venue in program history. The Covid pandemic prevented an almost-certain bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Pope’s Cougars were statistically among the top offenses in the nation in ’19-20. The Cougars finished the season ranked first in 3-point field goal percentage, second in assist-to-turnover ratio, third in field-goal percentage, fourth in 3-point field goals per game and fifth in assists per game.

Following his first season with the Cougars, Matt Norlander of CBS tabbed Pope as the best hire of the year. He was also awarded with the United States Basketball Writers Association District VIII Coach of the Year honor. He was a semifinalist for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year.

Pope’s first head coaching stint was a four-year term at Utah Valley. Beginning in 2015-16, the Wolverines increased their win total during every season of Pope’s tenure, culminating in a 25-10 overall mark and a runner-up finish in the Western Athletic Conference in 2018-19. Utah Valley was 30-2 at home from 2017-19, and the 25 wins in 2019 were a single-season school record.

He began his collegiate playing career at the University of Washington, where he was tabbed the 1992 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. After his sophomore season, he transferred to Kentucky, where he appeared in every game of his two-year career with the Wildcats. UK won the 1995 and ‘96 regular-season Southeastern Conference championships, the ’95 SEC Tournament title and the 1996 NCAA Tournament. He averaged 7.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in 69 career games. Pope was named to the All-SEC Tournament Team in 1995, behind a pair of double-doubles in three games, including one in the title game that went to overtime.

Pope was selected in the second round of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers. He played professional basketball from 1997-2005, including stints with Indiana, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets. In 2000-01, he started 45 games and helped the Bucks reach the Eastern Conference Finals.

Following his playing days, Pope enrolled in medical school at Columbia University and completed two years before returning to basketball. He joined Mark Fox’s staff at Georgia in 2009. He then spent one season as an assistant coach for Jeff Bzdelik at Wake Forest and four seasons at BYU under Dave Rose. The Cougars posted four straight 20-win seasons and advanced to postseason play in each of those four years, including three bids to the NCAA Tournament. His success as an assistant at BYU was the springboard to become head coach at Utah Valley.

Pope and his wife, Lee Anne, have four daughters, Ella, Avery Layla and Shay. He is a 1996 graduate of Kentucky with a degree in English.

Pope’s record as a head coach:

Those interested in season tickets are encouraged to enter the  season-ticket lottery . Due to the extremely high renewal rate of men’s basketball season tickets, only a limited number of upper-level tickets are available each year through the lottery.

A limited number of new lower-level season tickets are available with a capital pledge commitment, as are memberships in Rupp Arena’s newest hospitality space, the Champions Club. For more information on premium options, please contact the  K Fund Office  at (859) 257-6300.

For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter /X, Facebook , Instagram and TikTok , and on the web at UKathletics.com .

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• April 16, 2024

• April 15, 2024

Mark Pope returns to Kentucky basketball as John Calipari's successor. Here's what to know

LEXINGTON — A new era of  Kentucky basketball  is set to begin. UK hired one of its former players, Mark Pope , as its next coach on Friday.

Pope, who recently completed his fifth season at  BYU , replaces  John Calipari . After  a 15-season run  with the  Wildcats , Calipari  left for the same position  at rival SEC school  Arkansas .

Pope became the primary target for the job after a pair of coaches with national titles in their back pocket turned down the chance to coach UK.

It started with Baylor coach  Scott Drew , who removed himself from consideration Thursday,  restating his loyalty to the Bears  in a note posted on social media. Later that day, UConn's  Dan Hurley , leader of the to back-to-back national champions, also  reportedly relayed to Kentucky he wouldn't be heading to Lexington .

In his five seasons with the Cougars, Pope tallied a 110-52 (.679) record. He helped the Cougars navigate their transition from the  West Coast Conference  to the  Big 12 . During the 2023-24 season, BYU's first as a Big 12 school, it went 10-8, tying for fifth. The Cougars went 1-1 in the Big 12 Tournament,  falling to Texas Tech in the quarterfinals . They exited in the first round of NCAA Tournament,  losing to Duquesne , 71-67.

Here's a look at BYU's season-by-season record during Pope's tenure:

• 2019-20:  24-8 (13-3 West Coast Conference)
• 2020-21:  20-7 (10-3 WCC)
• 2021-22:  24-11 (9-6 WCC)
• 2022-23:  19-15 (7-9 WCC)
• 2023-24:  23-11 (10-8 Big 12)

Here are three things to know about Pope, who will attempt to lead UK back to prominence in the month of March after failing to win an  SEC Tournament  title since  2018  and not advancing out of the opening weekend of the  NCAA Tournament  since  2019 :

Mark Pope's coaching background, playing career

Pope spent two seasons at Washington as a player before transferring to Kentucky. After sitting out the 1993-94 season, Pope appeared in 69 games over his last two seasons at UK , which included being a member of the program's 1996 national title team . While in Lexington, he roomed with Jeff Sheppard , the father of future Wildcat Reed Sheppard .

Pope went on to play in the NBA before enrolling in medical school at Columbia .

But he couldn't shake the basketball itch.

He was Georgia 's director of basketball operations for the 2009-10 season before being hired as a Wake Forest assistant. Pope spent the 2010-11 campaign with the Demon Deacons before leaving for the same job at BYU.

In 2015, he received his first head coaching opportunity, taking over Utah Valley 's program. Pope went 77-56 in four seasons with the Wolverines before returning to Provo, Utah, to become BYU's coach in 2019.

Though Pope has won more than 100 games with the Cougars , a March Madness triumph isn't among that total.

He joins UK in search of his first NCAA Tournament win as a head coach, sporting an 0-2 record in two all-time appearances.

Mark Pope's salary, BYU buyout

Per the  USA TODAY Sports' coaching salary database , Pope's pay for the 2023-24 season isn't known. The same goes for any buyout figure UK would be on the books for.

As a private university, BYU is not subject to the same federal-tax filing laws as public schools.

According to CBS Sports senior writer Matt Norlander, Pope's contract with Kentucky reportedly will be  a five-year deal paying $5.5 million per season .

Mark Pope's BYU roster, 2024 recruiting class

Offensive balance defined  BYU's 2023-24 roster , boasting four players with a double-digit scoring average and three more above 9.0:  Jaxson Robinson (14.2), Fousseyni Traore (10.9), Trevin Knell (10.6), Spencer Johnson (10.3), Richie Saunders (9.6), Noah Waterman (9.5) and Dallin Hall (9.0).

The Cougars attempted 32.0 3-pointers per game last season, which ranked second in Division I (North Florida, 33.2). BYU also ranked among the country's top 10 in 3-pointers made per game (11.1; third), assists per game (18.5; third), bench points per game (33.5; fifth) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.73; sixth).

The Cougars finished last season 18th in KenPom's ratings — five spots ahead of the Wildcats.

One BYU player has entered the transfer portal since the season ended: freshman Marcus Adams Jr. , who appeared in just one game in 2023-24.

Pope had two players committed for the Cougars' 2024 recruiting class : three-star guard Brooks Bahr and three-star power forward Isaac Davis . BYU's two-prospect class was No. 60 nationally, per the 247Sports Composite rankings .

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

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Catholic church plays down reports of second papal visit to Britain

The Roman Catholic church in England and Wales sought to play down reports last night that Pope Benedict XVI was planning to visit Britain next year. It would be only the second time that a pope has come to the UK since Henry VIII broke with Rome to set up the Church of England in 1534.

A week ago the Catholic church released a statement announcing that it had formally invited the 78-year-old German pontiff to visit. "It is too soon to say either in what that visit might consist, or whether it would be feasible, given the Pope's commitments and the many invitations he has already received from across the world," it said.

"But the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, is keen that the Pope be aware of how delighted the British people would be should he feel able to accept.

"It is very unlikely that any papal visit would coincide with the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit in May 1982."

A spokesman for the church refused to be drawn last night on whether the Pope had accepted the invitation, despite a report in today's Daily Mirror that the visit is set to go ahead in September next year. He told the Guardian: "If that information were to be announced, it would come from us."

Although it is understood that the Vatican had not been due to accept or decline the invitation until the end of the month, a source told the Daily Mirror that preparation for the visit was already well under way. "The Vatican has already responded positively to the prospect of a UK visit," the source told the paper. "A date has already been pencilled in, and finishing touches are being made to the long-awaited tour."

Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, became the first pontiff to make an official visit to the UK when he came at the end of May 1982. After touching down at Gatwick airport, the Pope celebrated mass at Westminster cathedral before seeing the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Over the next five days, he said mass to 80,000 people in Wembley stadium, and was welcomed by millions of Catholics as he travelled around England, Scotland and Wales.

Pope Benedict XVI, or Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as he was before his inauguration last April, is known as "God's Rottweiller" because of his traditional views. His leadership of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith - charged with promoting and safeguarding doctrine - also won him the respect of many Catholics.

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Anti-papal sentiment on the rise?:Last week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

Pope francis to visit asia and oceania in september.

Pope Francis greets the journalists onboard the papal plane during the flight back to Rome at the end of his two-day apostolic visit to Malta, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (Credit: Ciro Fusco /Pool photo via AP.)

MUMBAI, India – Pope Francis will visit three countries in Asia and one in Oceania, according to a Vatican statement released on Friday.

Francis is scheduled to leave Rome on September 2 and return to the Vatican on September 13.

He travels first to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where he will land on September 3 and leave September 6. He will then travel to Papua New Guinea, visiting on September 6-9.

From September 9-11 he will be in Timor-Leste, before ending his Asia trip in Singapore.

There is a large variety of Catholic populations in these countries. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, and Catholics number over 8 million, or 3.1 percent of the population.

Papua New Guinea has a population of around 2 million, or 32 percent, while Timor-Este is 96 percent Catholic, over 1 million people. Singapore has 395,000 Catholics, around 3 percent of the population.

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta said the news that Francis will be visiting Indonesia “was received very enthusiastically, not only by Catholics.”

“The first announcement was given by the Minister of Religious Affairs. And during an interreligious meeting during the month of Ramadhan, the Great Imam of the State Mosque Istiqlal also announced the coming visit for the second time,” the cardinal told Crux .

“For several reasons the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia formally announced the coming visit only on the Feast of Annunciation, April 8, 2024,” he said.

“Actually, Pope Francis had decided to visit Indonesia in 2020, but then arrived the unexpected COVID-19,” Suharyo said.

“We ask our people to pray much for this visit planned in the first week of September, especially for the health of Pope Francis,” the cardinal continued.

“We also urge our faithful to prepare well the visit by deepening the messages of Pope Francis given in different encyclical letters and Apostolic Exhortation such as, Laudato Si’ , Fratelli Tutti , Evangelii Gaudium , and Gaudete et Exultate – on the call to holiness in today’s world,” he said.

Suharyo said the motto of the visit to Indonesia will be: Faith, Brother-Sisterhood, Compassion.

Archbishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Merauke, the President of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI), said the visit of Francis “will give us, the Church and the nation the positive impact because the Holy Father is not only the Shepherd of the Catholic Church but also the Father of humanity bringing peace and offering mercy.”

“Of course, the visit of the Holy Father is a blessing for the Church and the country,” he said.

“May this visit be a moral and spiritual encouragement for us all to live out the values of Pancasila that are in line with Christian value. May this visit strengthen our sense of ‘fratelli tutti’,” the archbishop said.

the Archbishop of Singapore, Cardinal William Goh, also welcomed the pope’s upcoming visit.

“It has been 38 years since we had a visit from the Vicar of Christ to Singapore, when Pope St. John Paul II honored us with a visit on 20 November 1986,” the cardinal said in a statement.

“It is my hope that this visit of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, will bring renewed fervor to all Catholics in Singapore, uniting them in faith and mission, especially in these most challenging of times,” he said.

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Follow our news, recent searches, catholic church in singapore warns of phishing scams over pope francis visit in september, advertisement.

Pope Francis gestures during the weekly general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on Apr 10, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli)

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SINGAPORE: The Catholic Church in Singapore on Monday (Apr 15) warned of phishing scams ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the country  in September.

“We have received reports of individuals/groups attempting to phish/acquire personal information by misrepresenting themselves as being associated with the ticketing process for the papal mass,” said the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore in an advisory.

“We urge the public to remain vigilant and not to fall prey to these scams. Tickets for the papal mass, when available, will be free-of-charge.”

The archdiocese also advised members of the public not to share personal information with any other websites or individuals claiming to offer tickets or information about the papal visit.

The church added that the only legitimate sources for information related to Pope Francis’ visit to Singapore are its official websites:

• www.popefrancis2024.sg
• www.catholic.sg
• www.mycatholic.sg
• www.catholicnews.sg
• www.catholicfoundation.sg

Pope Francis, 87, will visit Singapore from Sep 11 to Sep 13 - the last leg of his Asia tour.

He will be in Indonesia from Sep 3 to 6, Papua New Guinea from Sep 6 to 9 and Timor-Leste from Sep 9 to 11.

The last time a pope visited Singapore was in 1986 when John Paul II made a five-hour stop as part of his Asia-Pacific tour that included Bangladesh, New Zealand and Australia.

Thousands attended a papal mass at the National Stadium during that visit.

Apart from official engagements, Pope Francis is expected to be at a Eucharistic celebration, "likely" on Sep 12, said the archdiocese, adding that more information regarding his visit will be "released progressively in due course".

This will be the longest trip for the Argentine, involving more than 30 hours of flight as well as a series of meetings and masses, since he became head of the worldwide Catholic Church in 2013.

Pope Francis had been due to visit Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Indonesia in September 2020 but the trip was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Kentucky basketball roster 2024-25 watch: Latest on first team of UK's Mark Pope era

LEXINGTON — One of the most notable offseasons the  Kentucky basketball program has seen this millennium is in full swing.

For the first time since February 2009, John Calipari isn't leading the program. The coach, who spent the past 15 seasons guiding the Wildcats , stepped down from his post April 9. One day later, he was introduced as Arkansas ' new coach.

In his stead stepped a UK alum and a captain of the 1995-96 national championship team (known as "The Untouchables" ): Mark Pope .

Even before Calipari departed, multiple players already had announced decisions for next season. Forward  Adou Thiero  entered the transfer portal March 28.  Thiero later clarified his status, issuing a statement about his plans : He will test the NBA draft waters but left open the possibility to be part of Kentucky's team next season. Another Wildcat who could have provided experience in 2024-25, freshman  Justin Edwards , declared for the draft April 4. Fellow freshman Rob Dillingham did the same April 9. Since then, five more UK players have made announcements: the 7-foot trio of Aaron Bradshaw , Zvonimir Ivišić and Ugonna Onyenso along with freshman guards Joey Hart and D.J. Wagner .

Bookmark this page as  The Courier Journal  tracks offseason news related to UK's 2024-25 roster. 

Which Kentucky basketball players entered NCAA transfer portal?

F Aaron Bradshaw (7-foot-1, 226 pounds, Fr.): The big man from New Jersey was  one of the country's top prospects in the 2023 recruiting class  (ranked  No. 4 overall in the 247Sports Composite ). But after a foot injury sidelined him for the entire preseason and the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign, he displayed those gifts periodically  during his lone season in Lexington. And it came after  many Kentucky fans and draft analysts questioned  whether he'd ever suit up for the Wildcats. Bradshaw, who averaged 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 26 appearances last season, entered the transfer portal April 9 . He announced his commitment to Ohio State on his personal Instagram page April 15.

G Joey Hart (6-foot-5, 203 pounds, Fr.): A late addition to UK's top-ranked 2023 recruiting class , and 2023-24 roster , Hart originally signed with Central Florida but was released from his letter of intent. Following his release, Indiana and Rutgers also showed interest before Hart picked Kentucky after an official visit to Lexington. A three-star prospect from Linton, Indiana, Hart was a finalist for the  IndyStar's 2023 Mr. Basketball award after averaging 23.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game as a senior. He led Linton-Stockton to a 29-2 record and a spot in Indiana's  Class 2A state final and finished his high school career with 1,901 points, 424 rebounds, 224 assists, 162 steals and 112 blocked shots. Those numbers didn't translate immediately to the college level: Hart played in just seven games last season, totaling nine minutes and only three points. That end-of-game triple gave Kentucky the highest point total (118) of Calipari's tenure in a win over Marshall in November. Hart entered the transfer portal April 8.

F Zvonimir Ivišić (7-foot-2, 234 pounds, Fr.): After committing to UK on Aug. 1 , the Croatian's journey was just beginning. It took more than two months before he stepped foot in the Bluegrass State, as the university pored over his application as an incoming international student.  Ivišić finally was admitted to the university Oct. 4  and  arrived in Lexington the following week . But then the big man had to sit the next three months while the NCAA investigated his amateur status after  playing in professional leagues overseas  before joining Kentucky.  The NCAA finally gave him the all-clear Jan. 20 , and Ivišić took the floor that night, authoring  a memorable performance against Georgia at Rupp Arena, where he finished with 13 points (on 5-of-7 shooting, 3 for 4 on 3s), five rebounds, two assists, three blocks and two steals in 16 minutes. Ivišić played in 15 games off the bench, averaging 5.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 11.7 minutes. He was a knock-down shooter, connecting on 57.7% (30 for 52) of his attempts overall and 37.5% (6 of 16) beyond the 3-point arc. Ivišić entered the transfer portal April 13 and announced his commitment to Calipari and the Razorbacks on April 15.

F Adou Thiero (6-foot-8, 222 pounds, So.):  After playing sparingly as a freshman in 2022-23, Thiero established himself as a starter last season, in the lineup for 19 of his 25 appearances. He averaged 7.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, with  a standout showing versus then-No. 1 Kansas  at the  Champions Classic  in Chicago on Nov. 14, when Thiero set single-game personal bests in points (16) and rebounds (13). While he missed seven games in the middle of the season, he returned to start 11 of the Wildcats' final 14 outings. Expected to take on an even larger role for Kentucky in 2024-25, Thiero was the first player to reveal his intentions for next season,  entering the transfer portal March 28 . If he does not remain in the  2024 NBA Draft , UK hopes it can convince Thiero to return to Lexington. Given his ties to Calipari (Thiero's father, Almamy Thiero , also played for the coach at Memphis), it's uncertain what Thiero's interest level would be in suiting up for Pope.

G D.J. Wagner (6-foot-4, 192 pounds, Fr.): A bucket getter of the highest degree  in high school (he scored more than 2,000 points during his prep career), Wagner was expected to be one of Kentucky's top options offensively last season. The New Jersey native went on to average 9.9 points to go along with 3.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game. He participated in 29 of Kentucky's 33 games in 2023-24, with 28 starts. His best game offensively came in November,  when he scored a career-high 28 points in a 118-82 win over Marshall . Wagner r eportedly entered the transfer portal April 15.

Which UK basketball players declared for 2024 NBA Draft?

G Rob Dillingham (6-foot-3, 176 pounds, Fr.): The electric North Carolina product always was a threat offensively, averaging 15.2 points per game — trailing only senior  Antonio Reeves , who set a Calipari-era record at 20.2. Of Dillingham's 32 appearances in 2023-24, only one featured him in the starting lineup, which came against  Texas A&M-Commerce  in Game 2. Dillingham, who won the Southeastern Conference Sixth Man of the Year award and also was selected to the All-SEC Second Team (by both the league’s coaches and media members) and All-SEC Freshman Team, is expected to be one of the first players off the board in this year's draft.

G Justin Edwards (6-foot-8, 203 pounds, Fr.):  As expected upon his signing, Edwards' time with the Wildcats lasted only one season. A mainstay in the Wildcats' 2023-24 lineup, Edwards started 31 of the 32 games in which he appeared. Edwards averaged 8.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game. He was the  highest-ranked signee  in the  nation's top-ranked 2023 recruiting class . Edwards even entered the season  projected as the top overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft  by CBS Sports. But his lone season in Lexington had  its share of ups and downs . He went nine straight games (from late December and continuing through January) without posting a double-digit point total. Edwards ended that skid with  17 points in a win at Vanderbilt . That jump-started a strong finish to the season offensively, as he scored 10-plus points six times in Kentucky's final 10 games — highlighted by  a 28-point outburst against Alabama  at  Rupp Arena  on Feb. 24. Where he'll go in the draft — if he's selected at all — is uncertain. In his draft declaration, Edwards did not mention the possibility of returning for a second season at UK.

F Ugonna Onyenso (7-foot, 247 pounds, So.): Onyenso told ESPN on April 15 that he would hire an agent and enter this year's draft , thus ending his college career after two seasons at Kentucky. After sitting out the entire preseason and the first nine games of the 2023-24 campaign, Onyenso went on to play in 24 games (14 starts) and average 3.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in 18.7 minutes. Among UK players with at least 30 blocks in a season, Onyenso's blocks-per-game average (2.80) is the fifth-best mark in program history, trailing  Anthony Davis  (4.65 in 2011-12),  Nerlens Noel  (4.42 in 2012-13),  Willie Cauley-Stein  (2.86 in 2013-14) and  Sam Bowie  (2.86 in 1980-81). He had eight blocks in an overtime loss to Florida , then tied a Rupp Arena record (established by  Hall of Famer David Robinson in 1987 ) with 10 rejections in a win over Ole Miss . It's unclear where Onyenso might go in the draft — if he's even picked. In recent mock drafts from five different outlets —  USA TODAY ,  ESPN ,  Bleacher Report ,  The Ringer  and  NBAdraft.net  — only one projected Onyenso will be taken in the 58-pick draft. ESPN slotted him off the board in the second round, going with the 45th overall pick to the  Los Angeles Clippers .

Which recruits have committed to Mark Pope and UK basketball? 

G Collin Chandler (6-foot-4, 170 pounds): A Utah native, Chandler was originally set to play for Pope next season at BYU. Instead, Chandler on April 16 became the first commitment of the Pope era at Kentucky. A member of the 2022 class, Chandler has been away on a two-year mission but now will enroll at UK for his freshman season. Per the 247Sports Composite, Chandler was a four-star prospect in the 2022 cycle, ranking No. 37 nationally and No. 6 at his position (combo/shooting guard). He was the No. 1 prospect in Utah in 2022 , per the composite rankings. A three-time first-team all-state honoree, Chandler was named the 2022 Gatorade Player of the Year in Utah after averaging 21.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

G Travis Perry (6-foot-2, 170 pounds): Perry's reputation precedes him, as he's the all-time leading scorer in the history of Kentucky high school basketball , eclipsing "King" Kelly Coleman 's mark that had stood since 1956. Perry is Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball winner  after averaging 28.8 points and 5.2 rebounds, leading Lyon County to a 36-3 record and the school's first state title . He made 49.8% of his shots from the field, including 41.7% beyond the 3-point arc (184 of 441) and 84.5% from the free-throw line. His 184 triples set a single-season state mark. Perry, who joined Lyon County's varsity team as a seventh grader, ended his high school career with 5,481 points, becoming only the 10th high school boys basketball player in history to surpass the 5,000-point barrier , according to MaxPreps. Perry also set state records for career 3-pointers made (712) and career free throws made (933). He earned first-team All-State honors three straight seasons after landing on the third team as a freshman. Perry is a consensus four-star prospect in the 2024 cycle. Per the 247Sports Composite rankings, Perry is the country's No. 81 player in 2024 and No. 1 in the Bluegrass State .

This story will be updated as more Kentucky players make announcements about their plans for the 2024-25 season.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

Is Mark Pope the new Kentucky basketball coach? Get to know BYU leader, former UK Wildcat

Mark Pope is expected leave Brigham Young University to become the next Kentucky men's basketball coach, according to various media reports .

Contract information between the two sides is even surfacing, essentially setting the move in stone for the Wildcats. Barring any last-minute changes, of course.

Mark Pope to Kentucky?: Brown column | Pope worthy of being Kentucky basketball coach despite lack of signature wins

Here's what you need to know about BYU coach Mark Pope:

How long has Mark Pope been at BYU?

Pope has been the coach at BYU for 5 seasons, according to byucougars.com .

How much salary is Mark Pope paid at BYU?

BYU is a private university and is not subject to the same federal tax filing laws as public schools, leaving his Brigham Young salary unknown in the  USA TODAY Sports' coaching salary database .

How much is Kentucky basketball contract paying Mark Pope?

Pope will reportedly receive $5.5 million per season as part of a 5-year agreement, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports .

Mark Pope career coaching record

Pope has a 187-108 (.634) record as a head coach in his career, according to  sports-reference.com . He posted a 23-11 record during BYU's first season in the Big 12 last season, where the Cougars finished fifth in the conference.

Mark Pope BYU coaching record

Pope is 110-52 (.679) over five seasons at BYU, according to  sports-reference.com .

Mark Pope Utah Valley coaching record

Pope was 77-56 (.579) across four seasons as coach of Utah Valley men's basketball, according to  sports-reference.com .

Mark Pope career coaching stats

Here's a look at Mark Pope's accomplishments as a head coach, according to  sports-reference.com .

• 2 NCAA Tournament appearances.
• Fourth head coach in BYU history to win 20-plus games in his first three seasons.
• Semifinalist for 2020 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year.

Mark Pope attended college at Washington, Kentucky and Columbia

Pope attended the University of Washington before graduating from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1996, according to byucougars.com . He also completed two years of medical school at Columbia University.

Did Mark Pope play for Washington Huskies basketball?

Pope played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Washington, earning PAC 10 All-Academic honors for the 1992-93 season, according to byucougars.com . He also claimed Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors in 1992.

Mark Pope college stats with Washington basketball

Pope averaged 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game for the Huskies, according to sports-reference.com .

Did Mark Pope play for Kentucky Wildcats basketball?

Pope was a redshirt after transferring to Kentucky, but played a vital role in helping Kentucky to a Southeastern Conference title and Elite Eight appearance in 1995, according to byucougars.com . He also earned Academic All-SEC honors.

In 1996, Pope became a team captain and helped the Wildcats capture the SEC title on their way to the NCAA National Championship .

Mark Pope college stats with Kentucky basketball

The Kentucky center averaged 7.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks during his time with the Wildcats.

Did Mark Pope play in the NBA?

Yes, Mark Pope played six seasons in the NBA , according to www.basketball-reference.com .

Who drafted Mark Pope in the 1996 NBA Draft?

Mark Pope was drafted by the Indiana Pacers with the 52nd pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, according to www.basketball-reference.com .

What teams did Mark Pope play for in the NBA?

Mark Pope played for three teams in the NBA − playing two seasons each for the Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets .

Mark Pope NBA stats

Here are his averages with each team:

• Indiana Pacers: 1.3 points and 0.9 rebounds per game
• . Milwaukee Bucks: 2.2 points and 1.3 rebounds per game
• Denver Nuggets: 0.5 points and 0.8 rebounds per game

Mark Pope family

Pope is married to Lee Anne and has three daughters − Ella, Avery, Layla and Shay, according to  byucougars.com .

Chris Sims is a digital content producer at Midwest Connect Gannett. Follow him on Twitter:  @ChrisFSims .

‘All doors are open right now’ as UK basketball coach Mark Pope builds his first roster

In our In the Spotlight stories, Herald-Leader journalists bring you continuing coverage of news and events important to our Central Kentucky community. Read more. Story idea? [email protected].

Mark Pope’s first roster as the Kentucky basketball coach will, essentially, be started from scratch.

The last week-plus has seen a player exodus from the Wildcats’ 2023-24 roster under former head coach John Calipari, now at Arkansas.

From last season’s Wildcats (who went 23-10 overall with an opening round NCAA Tournament exit) the following roster news has occurred, as of Tuesday morning:

▪ Aaron Bradshaw (Ohio State) and Zvonimir Ivisic (Arkansas) have left UK for new schools via the NCAA transfer portal.

▪ Joey Hart, Adou Thiero and D.J. Wagner are in the transfer portal.

▪ Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Ugonna Onyenso have declared for the 2024 NBA draft.

▪ Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves — UK’s most experienced players — have exhausted their college eligibility.

▪ Reed Sheppard and Jordan Burks haven’t yet made a public stay-or-go decision.

In addition to this, Kentucky has lost five players from its six-player 2024 recruiting class, assembled by Calipari and ranked second in the country: Guard Boogie Fland, small forwards Karter Knox and Billy Richmond and centers Somto Cyril and Jayden Quaintance have all decommitted from UK. In-state guard Travis Perry is the only recruit from this group expected to play at UK.

Safe to say, Pope has plenty of work to do when it comes to assembling his first team in Lexington.

That work began in earnest Tuesday morning, when it was announced that former BYU signee Collin Chandler would be following Pope to Lexington. A former four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, Chandler served a two-year mission trip following his commitment to the Cougars.

Chandler, who is Pope’s first recruit at UK, will make his college basketball debut with the Wildcats next season.

This represents the first step in Pope’s construction of the UK roster for next season. He talked about this process Monday night during his first UK radio show.

“What we’re really, most importantly looking for, (is) we’re looking for great players with epic talent that can go hang a banner, that fit what Kentucky stands for,” Pope said. “That’s a lot, and it’s going to be a very selective process. I don’t think it’s just about going out and getting the most raw talent, I think it’s about going out and getting the pieces that can fit together to form a team that is elite and dangerous.”

Some early news on this roster-building front via the transfer portal arrived early Sunday, just hours before Pope was officially introduced as the Kentucky basketball coach in front of a packed Rupp Arena crowd.

Aly Khalifa, a skilled 6-foot-11, 270-pound center who played for Pope at BYU last season, is in the transfer portal and is considering Kentucky, Louisville and a possible return to BYU.

Pope and the Wildcats also have a transfer portal visitor lined up for next week: Former Drexel big man Amari Williams , known as one of the best defensive bigs in all of college basketball, will be visiting the Cats after taking other recruiting visits to St. John’s, Creighton and Indiana.

During his remarks at Sunday’s Rupp Arena event, Pope also singled out Perry, who signed his national letter of intent in November to come to Kentucky. Conversations are ongoing between Pope and Perry, and signs appear good that the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys basketball history will be a Wildcat next season.

But beyond these players — and Pope’s hope for a possible return by national freshman of the year Reed Sheppard — Pope is still in the process of identifying who he wants on his first Kentucky team.

Despite the distinct context of the school Pope was recruiting to — BYU has a religious affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Pope successfully recruited a wide variety of players to Provo via both traditional high school recruiting and the transfer portal during his five seasons with the Cougars.

Chandler, the 2022 BYU signee who will now come to Kentucky, was set to be BYU’s highest-ranked recruit in more than a decade.

Pope also successfully recruited three-star point guard Dallin Hall from the high school ranks. Hall’s 5.1 assists per game last season with the Cougars ranked in the top 50 nationally. Hall is now in the transfer portal.

Success stories authored by Pope at BYU from the transfer portal include Alex Barcello (Arizona), Brandon Averette (Oklahoma State and Utah Valley), Matt Haarms (Purdue), the previously mentioned Khalifa (Charlotte) and Jaxson Robinson (Texas A&M and Arkansas), who led the Cougars in scoring last season.

“The portal’s important. There’s a real space for some veteran leadership, some experience on a roster,” Pope said. “Especially if you can get a leader, especially if you can get someone whose voice can be heard, someone who’s developed their skill in a leadership role.”

One thing that’s clear for Pope, a man who now has significantly more recruiting resources at his disposal in Lexington than he did in Provo?

All options are on the table.

“Yes, for sure,” Pope said in relation to adding freshmen to the UK roster for the 2024-25 season, a comment that came to fruition hours later with Chandler’s commitment. “There’s some movement there and we’re also recruiting some guys that have been floating around this program. Yes, all doors are open right now.”

As Pope moves to put together a roster, some key deadlines will loom large.

College basketball players have until May 1 to enter the NCAA transfer portal. The early-entry deadline for the 2024 NBA draft is April 27, and players who enter the draft with remaining NCAA eligibility will have until May 29 to remove their names from consideration and return to school.

“The best part of recruiting is getting to know these kids,” Pope said. “These are young men with huge dreams and aspirations and they come from all different backgrounds and all different places and building relationships is the best part, and getting to know each other is the best part …

“We’re going to actually be the best team we can possibly be if we don’t trick kids into coming here, or get the wrong kids. It’s (going to be) getting the right kids that are going to live and die wearing a Kentucky uniform. That makes it fun. Because the job is not to convince, the job is to build relationships and that’s actually a super fun part of the process right now.”

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Mark Pope connects Kentucky’s past and present: ‘There is no better person for this’

Cameron Mills was so excited, his dog peed in the house. Once the news was official on Friday that his old Kentucky teammate, Mark Pope, would be the next head coach of their alma mater, Mills was bombarded by phone calls and text messages. In the delirium, he neglected to take the dog for a walk in time.

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“I can’t get off the phone,” Mills said. “Our boy got the job, and we’re all kind of losing our minds.”

Mills and his teammates from the 1996 national championship squad have a group-text thread together, and it’s been lit up since John Calipari’s shocking departure for Arkansas was first reported a week ago.

Inside John Calipari's move to Arkansas, in his own words

“We all knew who we wanted: Rick Pitino or Billy Donovan or Mark Pope,” Mills said. “Obviously, we’re biased. We all got recruited by Donovan, coached by Pitino and played with Pope. But we didn’t think it was realistic for any of them, really. For it to be our boy Pope, everybody is salivating, because everybody that coached him or played with him knows what’s coming.”

In the broader sense, what’s coming is a reconnection to the rich history and tradition of Kentucky basketball. For all Calipari’s success in 15 years leading the program, its image became a bit distorted during his tenure. Whether true or not, and Calipari insisted it wasn’t, many fans felt like accumulating NBA Draft picks was more important to him than hanging banners. In nine years since the last one of those was hoisted to Rupp Arena’s rafters, a growing number wondered whether placating future pros took priority over pride in what the program means to so many across the state — and across generations.

There will be no question what matters most to Pope, who has always worn the love for his alma mater on his sleeve. Or under his suit. When he couldn’t make it to Lexington for one of the ’96 team reunions, because he was busy coaching his BYU team, Pope recorded a video in which he ripped off his dress shirt and jacket to reveal a full Kentucky uniform. Then he belted out a C-A-T-S chant at the top of his lungs and finished with a heartfelt, “I love you guys.”

BREAKING: pic.twitter.com/nBrpx8TFxC — Steve Pierce (@PostJimmer) April 11, 2024

“How can that not excite you? There is no better person for this than Mark,” said former UK star Wayne Turner, a member of the 1996 and 1998 title teams. “When I walked into work after he got the job, I had a few people hollering at me, ‘Mark Pope! Mark Pope! Mark Pope!’ I was just pumping my fists, like, ‘Let’s go!’ What a great day for the program.”

In the Calipari era, Pitino, his longtime nemesis, was essentially erased at Kentucky. To be fair, he was also the coach of rival Louisville for a lot of that time. But by extension, Pitino’s great teams, from the 1992 Unforgettables to the ’96 Untouchables, the team that breathed life back into a program decimated by NCAA sanctions and the one that officially put the Cats back on top of college basketball, were also minimized.

“It’s nothing against Calipari at all, but I think all of us know what we did in the ’90s was special,” Mills said. “We know why we were able to do it, and his name is Rick Pitino. So now you’ve got a guy coming in here who is from the Pitino tree and, while he’s probably not going to cuss like Coach cusses, he’s going to coach with the same level of intensity and enthusiasm. That’s the way he played, and there’s a whole generation of fans who probably don’t know that about Mark. But the state is about to fall in love with him again.”

The ultimate signal that Pope’s hiring will reconnect Kentucky to its old glory came almost immediately after the announcement. From his office at St. John’s, Pitino recorded a video congratulating his former captain and assuring UK fans that Pope will “go on to greatness.” Later in the day, Pitino called in to a Lexington radio show and said he was so proud of Pope that he’d sign a check to help fund the Wildcats’ name, image and likeness collective.

“I can guarantee you one thing: Nobody, nobody epitomizes the name Kentucky on the front of the jersey like Mark Pope,” Pitino said in his video. “You have one of the premier young coaches in the game. Relish it, because he will do you proud.”

pic.twitter.com/UsiueCCp7h — Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) April 12, 2024

Some have questioned whether the Wildcats jumped the gun bringing in Pope now — and so quickly after Calipari’s departure — instead of trying harder to land a bigger name and more accomplished coach. But Alabama’s Nate Oats, Baylor ’s Scott Drew and Connecticut’s Dan Hurley all said no. Donovan, Pitino’s protege and former UK assistant who won two titles at Florida and now coaches the Chicago Bulls, would’ve required a much longer wait with no guarantee he’d take the job. He had, in fact, turned it down twice previously.

The 51-year-old Pope, meanwhile, won 25 games in his fourth season at Utah Valley and won 68 percent of his games in five years at BYU, but he’s never won an NCAA Tournament game. His supporters point out that Kentucky is not BYU, and now he has nearly unlimited resources, a blue-blooded brand name behind him and none of the admissions challenges that limited his recruiting options at the last stop.

“Hurley’s winning percentage before UConn was 59 percent. Sometimes a great coach just needs the great resources, the great fans, the great tradition of a great program to become a Hall of Fame coach,” Mills said. “I get the people who are questioning the hire, but in a few weeks, in a few months, when they see who he is, he’ll start winning over the doubters pretty quickly. Because this is the guy who outworked everybody, who out-studied everybody, whether we’re talking scouting reports or school. This isn’t the guy you run through a brick wall for; this is the guy you follow after he’s already run through the brick wall for you. He’s the Kool-Aid Man.”

Anthony Epps, starting point guard for the 1996 team, remembers two things clearly about Pope. First, that he and roommate Jeff Sheppard would hop on their bicycles and ride absurd distances together — sometimes to Frankfort or London, Ky., and back — just to clear their minds and stay focused amid the chaos that comes with Kentucky basketball. Second, that when other players on the team were down, they went to Pope for a pick-me-up.

“He was so positive and upbeat all the time, and he’d let you know everything was going to be OK. When Pope said that, you believed him,” Epps said. “He was like everybody’s big brother, and now our brother is in the big seat at UK. The way he was always there for us, it’s time for not only his old teammates but the whole Big Blue Nation to get behind him and trust that he’s going to get us back where we want to go. He’ll tell you that Kentucky basketball changed his life, and I can tell you he’s going to coach with so much passion and give everything he can to give back to this place.”

Outside of the Pope family, nobody is happier about his new job than Sheppard, who lived with him for two years in college. “It’s almost obnoxious how much energy he brings to a room,” Sheppard said. The word positive will be the one repeated most often about Pope, Sheppard predicted, because he radiates joy. His next most important trait is a thirst for knowledge, which isn’t surprising for a guy who was a Rhodes Scholarship candidate and went to medical school at Columbia before realizing he couldn’t shake the basketball bug.

“He’s always looking to grow and learn and master his craft,” Sheppard said. “That’s so important in today’s college basketball environment, because this thing is a constantly moving target. What used to work well, it’s just a different game now. So sure, he’s a connection to our past, but he’s always thinking about the future. That’s one of the reasons I know he’ll be successful, because he’s committed to putting all the pieces around him — to bring players together, bring coaches together, bring the administration together, bring the university together, bring the state together — to make this happen. That’s what I’m excited to help him with.

“I don’t know what my role will be. It won’t be on the bench, but I’m ready to do my part from the row right behind the bench, right there supporting him in any way that I can.”

The easiest way, of course, would be to tell his son, national freshman of the year Reed Sheppard , to hold off on the NBA Draft and play one more year at Kentucky for his old roommate. Unfortunately for Pope, Sheppard is a projected top-10 pick, and that’s probably going to prove too hard to pass up. If it were any other player at any other program, there wouldn’t even be a decision to be made.

But, Jeff Sheppard said, “We’re open for everything. Mark and I have had some conversations already, and Reed is still in the process of making that decision. There’s considerable interest right now from the NBA , so we have to listen to that. There’s also considerable interest from the fans at Kentucky, so that makes it hard. That makes it very difficult.”

It’s still a long shot, but Pope does have one thing going for him. When he was an assistant coach at Georgia and the Bulldogs played at Kentucky, Pope stopped by the Sheppard house. Reed was only 7 years old at the time, far from an actual prospect, but Pope told him never to forget who made his first in-home recruiting visit.

Neither of them could have imagined then where they’d both be right now, lifelong dreams coming true at the same place and time. For a star player, a program and its new coach, everything has come full circle.

“This isn’t just about the ’96 team. This is about all the ex-players — and all the people who were born into Kentucky basketball,” Mills said. “This is, ‘Hey, he’s our guy, and our guy just got the job.’”

On the morning it was official, Pope sent a message to the 1996 group chat. He told them he needs them now just as much as back then. (Many of them plan to be at his public introduction Sunday afternoon at Rupp Arena.) He told them the only way this works is if his former teammates are all-in with him. He told them he couldn’t wait to come home.

“The last thing he wrote,” Mills said, “had us ready to run behind him through another brick wall: Let’s do this. That got me. Yeah, we’ve done this before. Let’s do this again.”

(Photo of Mark Pope, center, and Kentucky teammates cheering during the 1996 Midwest Regional final: Jim Mone / AP)

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Kyle Tucker is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering Kentucky college basketball and the Tennessee Titans. Before joining The Athletic, he covered Kentucky for seven years at The (Louisville) Courier-Journal and SEC Country. Previously, he covered Virginia Tech football for seven years at The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot. Follow Kyle on Twitter @ KyleTucker_ATH