Pope Francis waves to faithful at the end of the weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
By Nicole Winfield
Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pope while being interviewed for the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday.
The papal thumbs up came midway through the film that delves into issues he cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said in one of his sit-down interviews for the film. “What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to same-sex marriages. However, he had never come out publicly in favor of civil unions as pope.
Director Evgeny Afineevsky had remarkable access to cardinals, the Vatican television archives, and the pope himself. He said he negotiated his way in through persistence, and deliveries of Argentine mate tea and Alfajores cookies that he got to the pope via some well-connected Argentines in Rome.
Brian D. Avery, managing member at Event Safety Services joins Cheddar News to discuss how preventable the recent crowd surge at Travis Scott's Astroworld was.
Former NBA star, commentator, and entrepreneur Baron Davis and Deluxe Corporation Chief Brand Officer Amanda Brinkman, joined Cheddar to discuss Season 6 of the reality show "Small Business Revolution," premiering Tuesday. The season will focus on helping six Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Davis noted learning about the lack of resources, connections, and opportunities for Black business owners during the show. "There are so many things we need to do as a society to address racial injustice and inequity, however, one of the ways for it is economic empowerment," Brinkman added.
Cryptocurrencies are getting off to a good week. Ethereum surged more than 4% in 24 hours on Monday, hitting a new all-time high above $4,700. Meanwhile, Bitcoin surged 7% to a price of $66,250. Haohan Xu, founder and CEO of Apifiny, joins Cheddar News with thoughts on the growing sector.
Two days after a deadly tragedy claimed the lives of at least eight Astroworld concertgoers and injured several others, the first lawsuit was filed against rapper Travis Scott. Criminal defense attorney Karen Felecia Nance joins Cheddar News to break down the incident.
The latest Marvel movie hit theaters with one of the biggest opening weekends of the year. 'Eternals' opened over the weekend with an estimated $71 million, the fourth-best domestic debut this year. Erik Davis, managing editor at Fandango, joins Cheddar News to talk about the state of box office sales.
Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, join 'Cheddar Reveals' to discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output.
On this episode of 'Cheddar Reveals', Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output; Ryan Lupberger, Sustainability Pioneer and CEO of Cleancult, breaks down how Cleancult is redefining cleaning products and solutions to reduce their impact on the planet; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Going Circular.'
Figuring out how to reduce congestion and emissions has long been a thorny issue for the car-centric United States. One possible solution - high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV), or carpool lanes - have their own thorny history. Despite pushes from the federal government for more HOV lanes in the 1970s and 1990s, the math of how HOV lanes work may mean they relieve traffic only a little - or even make it worse.
Marvel's 'Eternals' blasted into theaters Friday, bringing in $71 million in its opening weekend, becoming the fourth-best debut of the year. It comes at a crucial time for the box office as theaters attempt to bring back customers after over a year of pandemic-induced lulls. Shawn Robbins, Chief Analyst with BoxofficePro.com joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the state of the U.S. box office and a return to theaters.
