The death of Pope Francis has sent shockwaves through Iraq's Christian community, where his presence once brought hope after one of the darkest chapters in the country's recent history.

His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement. Just a few years before that, many Iraqi Christians had fled their homes as Islamic State militants swept across the country.

His predecessor loved Mozart, but Pope Francis's passion was football, for him "the most beautiful game" and also a vehicle to educate and spread peace.

From Argentine compatriots Lionel Messi and the late Diego Maradona to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gianluigi Buffon, Francis received the greatest stars of football at the Vatican, signing dozens of shirts and balls from around the world.

Pope Francis, who died on Monday, had an informal, lighthearted speaking style, and sometimes he even created words in a combination of his native Spanish with the Italian that he spoke as pope.

Some of his memorable quotes:

The death of a pope sets in motion a series of carefully orchestrated rites and rituals well before the conclave to elect his successor begins. They involve the certification of death and public display of his body for the faithful to pay their respects, followed by the funeral and burial.

Pope Francis, who died on Monday, revised various rites last year, simplifying the funeral rituals to emphasize his role as a mere bishop and allowing for burial outside the Vatican in keeping with his wishes. But the core elements remain, including the three key moments that must be observed between the death of a pope and his burial.

It's become a Good Friday tradition in Quraye: residents and visitors converging on the southern Lebanese village to witness a portrayal by some Christians there of Jesus' suffering and crucifixion.

On Friday, Charbel Joseph Antoun, 37, played the role of Jesus.

Pope Francis died Monday, the Vatican announced, history's first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change.

Francis, who suffered from chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14, 2025, for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days there, the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy.

With tears of emotion often flowing down their faces, tens of thousands of faithful have packed the rooftops, bridges and narrow streets of this historic city in southern Spain to watch much-venerated images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary carried in hourslong processions throughout Holy Week.

"To see her in the street, I can't explain it," said Modesta Montaña as she cried with her daughter when the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was carried past them by the Hermandad del Cerro, one of Seville's dozens of brotherhoods. "It's the happiness that we have her here outdoors, that this quantity of people are turning out."

The American University of Beirut (AUB) launched Fifty Years of Amnesia, a series of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990).

The initiative, organized by the Department of History and Archaeology in partnership with civil society organizations, student societies, artists, and activists, seeks to break the decades-long silence around one of the most formative and devastating periods in Lebanon’s modern history.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson has hosted a reception to celebrate the “A Thread of Hope” exhibit featuring 68 works of art by Lebanese artists at the U.S. Embassy.

Johnson expressed gratitude to the more than 70 artists who generously have partnered with the U.S. Embassy since 2022 on Art Loan Projects. Minister of Culture Ghassan Salameh attended the event Tuesday, as well as Director General of Antiquities Sarkis Khoury. Numerous artists, galleries, and art world patrons were also present.

Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, focusing on preserving the monument's historic domes from the threat of earthquakes.

Officials say the project will include reinforcing Hagia Sophia's main dome and half domes, replacing the worn lead coverings and upgrading the steel framework while worship continues uninterrupted in the mosque.