INTERNACIONAL
White smoke: Boehner’s encounter with Pope Francis changed Congress forever
An audience with the pope is a day to remember.
But only on Capitol Hill would the day after the pope visited become even more memorable.
The late Pope Francis came to Washington, D.C., to speak to a Joint Meeting of Congress on Sept. 24, 2015. He wasn’t the first pontiff to descend on Capitol Hill. But the pope is a head of state, ruling the Vatican City and the Holy See. As such, Francis became the first pope to speak to a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House chamber.
DEMOCRATS’ IDENTITY CRISIS: YOUTH REVOLT ROCKS PARTY AFTER TRUMP COMBACK

Pope Francis leads his traditional Wednesday General Audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on March 8, 2023. (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Lawmakers showered the Holy Father with applause and two standing ovations during his address. Two Catholics were perched behind Pope Francis on the dais: then Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. As vice president, Biden served as President of the Senate. As speaker, Boehner was the Constitutional officer for the legislative branch.
Boehner blotted his eyes with a handkerchief several times during the 3,400-word speech.
Pope Francis implored lawmakers to treat each other — and their constituents — with dignity.
«We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays. To discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’» he said.
GOP PUSH TO MAKE TRUMP’S 2017 TAX CUTS PERMANENT, SAY GOING BACK WOULD BE A ‘DRAMATIC’ CHANGE FOR MANY

President Joe Biden, left, exchanges gifts with Pope Francis as they meet at the Vatican on Oct. 29, 2021. (Vatican Media via AP)
One thing I remember about the Pope’s visit was the choreography. Congressional workers affixed small, green strips of tape to the Capitol’s marble floors. Names were emblazoned on the tape in black Magic Marker at different points around the complex. «McCarthy» or «Pelosi» or «McConnell.» All part of the political — and papal — stagecraft.
The tape dictated where key political leaders would stand as they escorted Pope Francis into the House chamber or in front of the statue of Junipero Serra in Statuary Hall.
A duct-taped «X» marked the floor in front of Serra. The pope canonized Serra the day before he visited the Capitol at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Serra became the first American to become a saint on U.S. soil. Pope Francis blessed the statue of Serra. The statue depicts the saint hoisting a cross in his right hand, looking skyward toward the heavens.
Someone taped a green arrow over the black and white tiles of Statuary Hall, pointing toward the Speaker’s Office.
That signaled the pope’s next stop on Capitol Hill.
FOX NEWS TO AIR LIVE COVERAGE OF POPE FRANCIS’ FUNERAL ON SATURDAY

Pope Francis addresses the joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, 2015. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images)
Pope Francis and the entourage then walked toward Boehner’s office and onto the Speaker’s Balcony overlooking the West Front of the Capitol and down the National Mall toward the Washington Monument.
A throng assembled on the Capitol grounds.
«Buenos dias,» said the Pope, greeting the crowd like he would from the «Pope’s Window» at the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on a Sunday. «I am grateful for your presence.»
He then blessed the pilgrims on the ground below.
«Papa! Papa!» the crowd chanted.
When the pope first arrived at the Capitol, he met with Boehner in the Speaker’s ceremonial office just off the House floor.
Boehner paced nervously awaiting Pope Francis on the 19th century Minton Tiles, which adorn the office.
«He’s on Boehner time,» said the former speaker. «Which is on time.»
Boehner wore his signature Kelly green tie for the occasion — a vintage piece of Boehner apparel, which dates back to when he served in the Ohio state legislature and first ran for Congress in 1990. When Pope Francis arrived, he told the former speaker the tie bore a «color of hope.»
A few days later, Boehner choked up as he relayed a story about what Pope Francis said to him when they were about to exit the Capitol.
«We found ourselves alone,» said Boehner of himself and Francis.

Pope Francis ponders during the inauguration of a UNESCO chair at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome on Oct. 7, 2021. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images)
The pope grabbed the speaker’s arm.
«The pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulled me to him and said, ‘Please pray for me,’» said Boehner. «Wow. Who am I to pray for the pope?’ But I did.»
Boehner left the Capitol that night. But his encounter with the Holy Father seemingly transformed the speaker — and altered the trajectory of the House for years to come.
The speaker decided to resign the next morning.
«He had been trying to get out of here for years,» said one source close to the speaker at the time.
Boehner’s plans to depart were thwarted when the heir apparent, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., stunningly lost his primary in the spring of 2014.
So Boehner soldiered on.
By late July 2015, former Trump White House chief of staff and former Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., prepped a «motion to vacate the chair.» Those who follow Capitol Hill know all about such a motion now. But it was novel a decade ago. Such a motion would require the House to take a vote of confidence in the speaker in the middle of the Congress. Lawmakers had never used the tactic before. It was hardly discussed.

Pope Francis meets President Donald Trump in the Private Library of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on May 24, 2017. (Vatican/Pool/Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori via Getty Images)
Meadows released his resolution just before the August recess — but never triggered it.
That gave Boehner and the House a month to stew over whether Meadows might try to oust the speaker when lawmakers returned in September.
On the night after the pope’s visit, Boehner called his chief of staff, Mike Sommers, to tell him he planned to step aside. Boehner also told his wife, Debbie, of his plans.
«This morning I woke up, said my prayers, as I always do, and thought, ‘This is the day I am going to do this,’» said Boehner.
Boehner then astonished a meeting of the House Republican Conference that he intended to resign.
The move sent a shock wave through Washington.
«My first job as speaker is to protect the institution,» Boehner said. «It had become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution.»
The Boehner departure — the day after his encounter with Pope Francis — set into motion what some might regard as the very «prolonged leadership turmoil» that the former speaker hoped to avoid.
It was believed that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. — then the House Majority Leader — would ascend to the job. But as startling as Boehner’s departure was, McCarthy supplanted that. Moments before House Republicans were set to tap McCarthy as the next speaker, McCarthy withdrew from the contest. He lacked the votes.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., looks on at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2023. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
McCarthy’s decision roiled Capitol Hill for weeks. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., eventually took the job. But Ryan was reluctant. He even put out a statement that he didn’t want it.
Others jumped in: Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., along with former Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Bill Flores, R-Texas.
But Ryan finally came around. Fox was told at the time that if Ryan hadn’t come around, «there would be blood on the floor» of the House as Republicans waged an internecine donnybrook.
Ryan remained as House speaker until he retired in early 2019. Democrats won the House in the 2018 midterms. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., returned to the speakership she held eight years before.
But Democrats lost the House in the 2022 midterms. And even though McCarthy touted a 40-plus-seat rout for the GOP, Republicans controlled the House by a thread.
DICK DURBIN, NO 2. SENATE DEMOCRAT, WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. (Getty Images)
Thus, it set into motion a five-day battle in early 2023 as McCarthy struggled for 15 rounds before winning the speakership. It was the longest speaker’s race since the mid-19th century.
But McCarthy was gone by early November.
Remember that «motion to vacate the chair» mentioned earlier?
Meadows never activated his motion in 2015. But former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., did in 2023.
McCarthy was done. And the House spent three weeks trying to elect a new speaker.
First they tried House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Then House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Then House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.
None prevailed.
Finally, a backbencher emerged from the fray: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, holds the gavel after being re-elected House speaker during the first session of the 119th Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The House of Representatives has never quite been the same since Boehner made his surprise announcement after his encounter with Pope Francis. The speakership seems to teeter on an edge these days — at least when Republicans run the chamber. Johnson periodically endures threats to «vacate the chair.» Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tried to bounce him just last year.
During the speaker succession fight of 2015 and the three-week speaker debacle of 2023, friends asked if «white smoke» would emanate from the Capitol Dome. They facetiously suggested that it would signal the election of a new House speaker.
The College of Cardinals will begin a conclave in Rome in a few days to select a successor to Pope Francis. It’s a political process. Not unlike what happens in Congress when there’s a vacancy in the speakership. We’ll know there’s a new pope when white smoke wafts out of a duct atop the Sistine Chapel.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Cardinals of the Catholic Church attended the election conclave in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Vatican City on April 18, 2005. (Arturo Mari, Vatican Pool)
It was an important day when Pope Francis spoke to a Joint Meeting of Congress in 2015. But in sheer Congressional terms, the day afterward was seismic for the nature of the institution. Boehner’s abrupt resignation ushered in an unsettled era about who presides over the House. The visit by Pope Francis and Boehner’s departure forever melded the two together in the annals of Capitol Hill.
And as a result, whenever there’s a House speaker interregnum in the future, political observers will always look for political «white smoke» to find out if lawmakers have settled on a new leader.
Politics,Pope Francis,Congress,House Of Representatives
INTERNACIONAL
El gobierno uruguayo se niega a intervenir en el mercado del dólar y sugiere invertir en pesos

La cotización del dólar se ha devaluado en torno a un 10% en lo que va del año, algo que está en línea con lo que sucede en el mercado global. La divisa estadounidense cerró el mes de septiembre a la baja y ya son ocho los meses en los que pierde valor en la comparación entre el primer día del mes y el último. Desde el sector exportador ven con preocupación este fenómeno porque aseguran que le genera una pérdida de competitividad. Pero el gobierno responde que tiene poco para hacer.
En el gobierno argumentan que la caída del dólar responde principalmente a causas externas. En Brasil, que es el principal mercado de referencia para Uruguay, su cotización tuvo la mayor caída mensual en septiembre y también presenta un retroceso grande en lo que va del año.
Los exportadores alertan que estas caídas podrían derivar en la fuga de algunas empresas. “Es siempre un factor de preocupación porque las exportaciones se venden en dólares y esos dólares rinden cada vez menos para pagar todas las cuentas en pesos, ya sea salarios, tarifas públicas, impuestos”, explicó a Canal 5 la economista de la Unión de Exportadores María Laura Rodríguez.

Hubo, a su vez, una “alerta especial” para las empresas que exportan servicios. “Al no tener una infraestructura física, podrían cambiar de país. Muchas de ellas tienen dependencias en distintos países y pueden comparar los costos de trabajar en un país y en otro. Vienen planteando que las casas matrices les dicen: ‘Defendeme por qué Uruguay’. Están teniendo cada vez menos elementos por un tema básicamente de competitividad”, señaló la economista.
Durante una gira por el interior del país, el ministro de Economía, Gabriel Oddone, respondió estos planteos y negó que el gobierno vaya a intervenir en el mercado. “A diferencia de lo que pasó en los últimos cuatro años cuando la apreciación del peso uruguayo era un evento espurio –que ocurría en Uruguay pero que no estaba ocurriendo en el mundo–, lo que está ocurriendo hoy con el peso uruguayo va en línea con lo que está ocurriendo a nivel global”, explicó el ministro en una conferencia de prensa consignada por Telemundo de Canal 12.

El foco del equipo económico está puesto en que haya condiciones para que la inflación del país sea baja, algo que entienden que ayuda a la competitividad de los exportadores. Además, Oddone defendió algunas medidas que tomó el gobierno pensando en estos empresarios, como la eliminación de tasas.
Si bien históricamente el problema de la competitividad se ata al dólar, el gobierno de Yamandú Orsi busca desligar estos dos conceptos. “El gobierno no tiene vocación por fijar el precio del dólar (…). Para el gobierno el dólar no constituye un objetivo de política”, expresó y pidió que los uruguayos aprendan que en el país “no hay control de precios”.
En el gobierno hay una fuerte apuesta por desdolarizar la economía, en un contexto en el que la suba de los precios está consolidad. El presidente del Banco Central del Uruguay, Guillermo Tolosa, hizo explícita esta sugerencia días atrás: “No vengo a decir que hay que invertir en pesos porque no sé lo que va a pasar de acá a tres meses. Pero algo que sí sé es que si invertís en dólares tu poder adquisitivo va a ser muy volátil. Es una especie de timba de casino donde poder invertir y perder en el corto plazo y a largo plazo perdés siempre. Cuando invertís en UI o en pesos tu poder adquisitivo va a estar estable”, explicó.

Este miércoles, el ministro Oddone dijo estar de acuerdo con él. “En estos contextos de inflación baja, cualquiera que haga los números puede encontrar que es muchísimo más rentable ahorrar en pesos que en dólares. Por supuesto que hay un riesgo en el que se incurre: una eventual devaluación. En Uruguay no tiene lugar una devaluación en escalón desde hace 20 años”, expresó.
america,blue,capital,cities,city,cityscape,commercial,composition,containers,defence,district,dock,documentary,harbor,jetty,large,latin,montevideo,pier,residential,scene,scenic,sky,skyline,skyscraper,south,urban,uruguay
INTERNACIONAL
Church of England names Sarah Mullally first woman Archbishop of Canterbury after Welby exit

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Church of England announced Friday that Sarah Mullally will become the next Archbishop of Canterbury, marking the first time a woman has been selected for the role.
Serving as the bishop of London since 2018, Mullally replaces former archbishop Justin Welby, who resigned last November after an independent investigation found he failed to act after learning about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND HEAD RESIGNS AFTER FAILING TO REPORT DECADES-LONG SEXUAL ABUSE BY SUMMER CAMP VOLUNTEER
Britain’s new Archbishop of Canterbury-designate, Sarah Mullally, speaks following the announcement of her posting, at Canterbury Cathedral in south east England on October 3, 2025. (BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
She will be the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury after 105 male predecessors.
Mullally will be known as the Archbishop of Canterbury-designate until her election is confirmed at St. Paul’s Cathedral in January 2026, according to the church. A service of installation will take place in March at Canterbury Cathedral.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Church of England is the mother church of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
united kingdom,religion,world
INTERNACIONAL
Panorama internacional: Oriente Medio, el difícil camino hacia el punto de partida

Los «dos» Hamas
- POLITICA2 días ago
Cristina Kirchner chicaneó a Javier Milei: “La Recesión Avanza y los dólares se te siguen yendo”
- CHIMENTOS3 días ago
Mario Massaccesi casó a Manu Jove y su colega de TN: los desconocidos detalles de la boda
- POLITICA1 día ago
Axel Kicillof pide deuda por US$1045 millones y pone a prueba la cohesión del PJ en la Legislatura