Courtesy: Google/ECB
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had to recently apologise for a joke that they had put out via their official X account, in connection with Pope Francis. Notably, Pope Francis, also known as The Pope, is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Pope Francis, who is 88 years of age, had been hospitalized at Rome's Gemelli Hospital for almost the last three weeks. He was hospitalized in Rome on February for a respiratory tract infection which later developed into pneumonia in both his lungs. The ECB had recently replied to one of the post put out by the official X account of The Pope on the occasion of Ash Wednesday.
The post from Pope Francis read, "The Ashes remind us of who we are, it does us good. It puts us in our place, smooths out the rough edges of our narcissism, brings us back to reality, and makes us more humble and open to one another. None of us is God, we are all on a journey." In response, the ECB had reposted it with a comment of their own, which read, "Even the Pope (@Pontifex) loves the Ashes", connecting it with the Ashes cricket series played between England and Australia, for which they received a lot of backlash from the public.
What was the actual context of Pope Francis’ post?
After criticism, the ECB quickly deleted their post and issued a public apology. They said, “This was an ill-judged post and was swiftly deleted. We apologize for any offence.” Meanwhile, th post put out by Pope Francis was actually in context to Ash Wednesday which is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian countries. It also marks the first day of Lent; the six weeks of prayer and fasting before the arrival of Easter.
Pope Francis has now been hospitalized for almost three weeks, recovering from his respiratory illness. On Friday, March 7, The Pope sent out his first ever audio-message from the hospital, thanking the people praying for his recovery.
