Category: World

CNN
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The Buffalo Bills were holding meetings and a walk-through Wednesday before their Week 18 game against the New England Patriots – less than two days after Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a nationally televised game.

The 24-year-old safety has shown “signs of improvement” and remains in critical condition, the Bills tweeted Wednesday, while players, coaches and fans keep their focus on his recovery in the run up to the final weekend of the NFL’s regular season and the subsequent playoffs.

The emotions surrounding the return to the field were apparent during a teleconference Wednesday when Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations, recalled watching video of the play in which Hamlin was injured more than 100 times.

“To the medical professionals, first responders to physicians to trainers, the EMTs (the response) that evening was outstanding. You gave our brother Damar another day to live, another chance to fight,” Vincent told reporters, his voice fading.

He added, “The only thing that mattered to myself, the team here, the folks in the stadium and the coaches was the health and wellness of Damar and getting those coaches back to the locker room so they can look their players in their eyes and see who they are. They were hurting. There was a lot of pain. And talking to the commissioner and communicating with everyone, it was just important. We just couldn’t play.”

Vincent said the NFL hasn’t discussed whether Sunday’s game between the Patriots and the Bills in Buffalo will be postponed.

The league will allow Bills coach Sean McDermott and his team and staff “to guide us if we have to make that decision,” Vincent added.

The league executive said he wants to ensure players on the Bills “have what they need to function” and that “they’re OK.”

As for Monday’s postponed game with the Bengals, Vincent said, “Everything is being considered.” Options include schedule changes, pushing back the playoffs a week or eliminating the bye week before the Super Bowl.

Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said the emergency response was crucial that night.

“It’s certainly not an exaggeration to say that the skilled and the immediate response by all of these talented caregivers prevented a very tragic outcome at that moment,” Sills said.

The Bills will have no media availability Wednesday, the team said. New England also postponed Wednesday’s scheduled media availability, the Patriots said.

“The NFL has approved giving both the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots an extra day due to these unique circumstances,” the Patriots said.

Bengals coach Zac Taylor, speaking to reporters Wednesday before the first team meeting since Hamlin’s injury, recalled what McDermott said to him before the game was postponed: “The first thing he said was, ‘I need to be in the hospital for Damar. And I shouldn’t be coaching this game.’”

“In that moment he really showed who he was – that all his focus was just on Damar and being there for him and being there for his family at the hospital,” Taylor said of McDermott.

Taylor praised the team trainers, physicians and paramedics who tended to Hamlin on the field. “They were composed. It was obviously a complicated situation on the field that everybody was trying to process… I think that’s important to point out, that they were prepared and that they gave Damar the best chance.”

Hamlin was sedated and on a ventilator Tuesday night at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, his uncle Dorrian Glenn told CNN. His collapse on the field halted the Bills Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills tweeted that Hamlin’s “heartbeat was restored on the field.”

The injury, which came after Hamlin’s tackle of a Bengals wide receiver, stunned a packed stadium and viewers across the nation – and brought new scrutiny to the National Football League and how it protects its players.

Most NFL teams are off Tuesday but some canceled limited availability that day following Hamlin’s injury. The rest of the league was expected to return to work Wednesday to prepare for the final games of the regular season, though the social media accounts of many NFL players remain focused on Hamlin.

It’s still unclear what led to the cardiac arrest.

Hamlin is on a ventilator to relieve strain on his lungs, which have been damaged, according to Glenn. The doctors told Glenn his nephew has also been “flipped over on his stomach” to help with the blood on his lungs.

Hamlin collapsed shortly after tackling Tee Higgins with about six minutes left in the first quarter. Monday’s game was postponed, with the Bengals leading 7-3, and will not be resumed this week, and no decision has been made on whether to ever continue it, the NFL said Tuesday.

The game has playoff implications: Both teams have clinched playoff spots but are jockeying for higher seeds in the American Football Conference. Securing the top seed means getting a week off while the six other AFC playoff teams compete.

The days after the injury have been marked by an outpouring of support for Hamlin and his family, with messages of prayers and well wishes from star athletes, fans and national leaders.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a memo to teams Tuesday that the heads of player engagement and team clinicians for all clubs have received information about mental health and support resources for players and staff.

I’ll never forget standing on the tarmac at Andrew’s Air Force Base in 2008 with a gaggle of journalists waiting for “Shepherd One” to touch down. Like the rest of my colleagues, my feet were killing me, but the excitement was palpable.

The honor guard was in place, Secret Service agents were in place, and dignitaries were queued up. Moments after the Alitalia airliner came to a halt, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were first in line to greet the beaming German pontiff.

As he moved from the tarmac into an awaiting limo, he blessed the adoring crowds, including the journalists covering his visit.

America had only hosted two popes — Paul VI in 1965 and John Paul II on seven occasions — but this was the first and only visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

Sounding incredibly like his predecessor, Benedict lauded American values and its responsibility to guard freedom and protect the vulnerable.

“Freedom is not only a gift but also a summons to personal responsibility,” he said in his opening remarks, just before celebrating his 81st birthday at the White House.

“The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate.”

John Paul II had said almost the same thing to Americans on multiple occasions.

REV. ROBERT SIRICO: POPE BENEDICT LEFT US A LOT OF THINKING TO DO

It should come as no surprise that Benedict and John Paul were of one mind on most issues. Both men were formed in the crucible of the Second World War. Both were influential fathers of the Second Vatican Council. Karol Wojtyla — the future John Paul II — was a young bishop from Kraków. Josef Ratzinger — the future Benedict XVI — was an adviser to the archbishop of Cologne, Germany.

For both, the Council was the launchpad for their papacies.

Their contributions to Vatican II are legendary — Ratzinger’s to Dei Verbum, a document about the sources of revelation, and Wojtyla to Gaudium et Spes, about the Church in the modern world

Remarkably, they didn’t meet during the Council. Their paths crossed at the 1978 conclave that elected Italian cardinal Albino Luciani — Pope John Paul I.

Ratzinger later recalled his first impression of the Polish cardinal.

“I was particularly impressed by his human warmth and the deep inner rooting in God which appeared so clearly,” he said of that meeting. “And then, of course, I was also impressed by his philosophical education, his acuteness as a thinker, and his ability to communicate his knowledge.”

Shortly after his election in 1978, John Paul II asked Ratzinger to work with him in Rome. But the newly minted German cardinal declined, having only been archbishop of Munich for little more than 18 months.

The pope renewed his offer in 1981. This time Ratzinger accepted. He took on several roles at the Vatican in early 1982, including Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a post he held until being elected John Paul’s successor in 2005.

Their 23-year partnership was one of the greatest in modern Church history.

“The collaboration with the Holy Father was always characterized by friendship and affection,” Benedict told an interviewer in 2013. “It developed above all on two planes: the official and the private.”

The two met regularly for lunch on Tuesdays and again on Friday evenings to discuss work. A deep friendship also developed.

“[The idea] that John Paul II was a saint came to me from time to time, in the years of my collaboration with him, ever more clearly,” Benedict said.

They became Catholicism’s dynamic duo. It was almost like Ratzinger was Robin to John Paul’s Batman. But it was deeper than that. Ratzinger’s input gave John Paul’s writings greater depth and clarity. Ratzinger was John Paul’s sounding board for many of his initiatives — from the launching of World Youth Day to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 1992.

Like John Paul II, Benedict understood his responsibility to faithfully interpret the Second Vatican Council.

In some sense, Benedict’s reign was an eight-year extension of John Paul’s 26-year papacy. Both leaned heavily on Council documents in their encyclicals, speeches, and papal writings. Both men helped cement Church teachings on the priesthood, sexuality, and papal authority.

Benedict went on to break new ground on liturgy and ecumenism. His 2007 motu proprio loosened restrictions on priests’ ability to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. Two years later, he created a path for Anglicans to come into full communion with the Catholic Church.

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History may remember Benedict XVI for his abdication in 2013 — the first pope to do so in more than 600 years. But he saw himself as a simple “co-worker in the truth” — the episcopal motto he chose for himself in 1977.

When he’s laid to rest in the crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, Benedict’s remains will fittingly occupy the tomb left vacant when John Paul was moved to the upper basilica in 2011. This will be only the second papal funeral in 44 years — and the first time a sitting pope presides over the funeral of a former pope in centuries.

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Pope Francis may well quote Benedict who fittingly described John Paul II’s entrance into heaven while presiding over his funeral in 2005: “We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father.”

That’s a blessing I would readily accept again — this time from heaven.

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CNN
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A rare scene unfolded Wednesday in Covington, Kentucky: President Joe Biden stood alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as the two men promoted a major bipartisan legislative accomplishment they achieved together.

The president’s visit to McConnell’s home state to herald the implementation of the massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that McConnell and 18 other Senate Republicans voted for, and that Biden signed into law in 2021, marked his first domestic trip of the new year. The trip was aimed at sending an unmistakable message as Biden kicks off the second half of his first term: Even in a newly divided Congress, the Biden White House still sees room for bipartisanship.

Biden thanked McConnell for working across the aisle on the law.

“It wouldn’t have happened without your hand. It just wouldn’t have gotten done and I want to thank you for that,” Biden said to McConnell during his remarks.

He added that while he and McConnell don’t agree on a lot, the Kentucky Republican is someone you can trust.

“He’s a man of his word. When he gives you his word, you can take it to the bank, you can count on it, and he’s willing to find common ground to get things done for the country. So thank you, Mitch. Thank you,” Biden said.

The scene was a stark message of bipartisanship and pragmatism sent by Biden and McConnell as the two old Senate colleagues came together at the same time that House Republicans found themselves falling further into divisive chaos over Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker. As Biden spoke in Covington, McCarthy suffered a fourth defeat in his push to lead the House of Representatives.

The backdrop for Biden’s visit was the Brent Spence Bridge that connects Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, and is known to be one of the busiest freight routes in the country. Officials say the structure carries far more traffic than it is meant to support.

It’s also a bridge that Biden once promised he would overhaul: “We’re going to fix that damn bridge of yours going into Kentucky,” Biden said during a CNN town hall in Cincinnati in the summer of 2021, as the infrastructure bill appeared to be on the cusp of passage.

On Wednesday, the White House announced more than $2 billion from the infrastructure law would go towards upgrading the Brent Spence bridge and other “economically significant bridges” around the country.

Biden’s trip to the Ohio-Kentucky border on Wednesday will also feature Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and former Republican Sen. Rob Portman, as well as Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

White House officials say that the show of bipartisanship is aimed at sending a clear signal that as Republicans take control of the House, Biden remains convinced that there will still be opportunities for bipartisan legislative wins.

The White House made it clear on Wednesday that they had no intention of getting involved in the drama playing out in the House. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with the president that the Biden administration is “going to let the process play out.”

“It’s not my problem. I think it’s embarrassing the way it’s taking so long,” the president told reporters as he departed the White House Wednesday.

McConnell’s decision to appear with Biden on Wednesday also signals the GOP leader’s willingness to work alongside the president, even as many of his Republican colleagues in the House take a hardline stance against compromising with Democrats.

While White House officials regularly invite all congressional members to attend events Biden holds in their home states, Republicans frequently turn down the opportunity – making McConnell’s decision to join the president this week all the more notable.

Biden himself sought to downplay the importance of the pairing on Monday.

“We’ve been friends a long time. Everybody is talking about how significant it is. It has nothing to do about our relationship,” he said as he returned to the White House from his winter vacation in St. Croix. “It’s a giant bridge, man. It’s a lot of money. It’s important.”

McConnell, during his remarks ahead of the president, noted how the infrastructure law is an example of government working to solve problems for everyday Americans.

“If you look at the political alignment of everyone involved, it’s the government is working together to solve a major problem at a time when the country needs to see examples like this, of coming together and getting an outcome,” McConnell said.

A number of Cabinet officials also plan to travel later this week to promote the infrastructure law. Vice President Kamala Harris will stop in Chicago, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit New London, Connecticut, on Wednesday where they will each “discuss how the president’s economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs – jobs that don’t require a four-year degree – and revitalizing communities left behind,” a White House official said.

Over the coming weeks, Biden is expected to reiterate his bipartisan achievements in stops around the country as the Republican majority in the House begins its work, culminating in his yearly State of the Union address. Biden’s aides have begun work on that speech and have made bipartisanship a central theme.