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.
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Catching you up on what you need to know on April 15, 2022, with four of the victims from the Brooklyn subway shooting still hospitalized as the suspect is held without bail, Russia resumes attacks on Kyiv, teachers across the country receive their largest pay raises in decades, and more.
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Keith Taylor, adjunct assistant professor at John Jay College and former Sergeant, Special Assignment for the NYPD, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss how law enforcement will attempt to track down and capture the alleged Brooklyn subway shooter.
Actors Diane Kruger and Kiernan Shipka joined Cheddar News to talk about their new series remake of the 1994 movie "Swimming with Sharks," premiering exclusively on The Roku Channel on April 15 with a full season drop. The series about the seedier side of Hollywood production had its own shoot interrupted during COVID — but it was worth the wait, according to Shipka. "To see the show in its final form come to light and be received by people well and have people talk about it, it almost feels like a little bit of a fever dream," she said. Kruger also addressed the show's focus on the cutthroat nature of the film industry, noting "It is definitely not an easy job to be an assistant in Hollywood."
