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.
Instagram has launched a feature that urges teenagers to take breaks from the photo-sharing platform and announced other tools aimed at protecting young users from harmful content on the Facebook-owned service.
Refinery29 has launched their new gaming series, ‘GG,’ which features leading women and non-binary gamers through the lens of identity, entrepreneurship, wellbeing, community, self-expression, and personal beauty. Melissah Yang, entertainment director at Refinery29 joins Cheddar News to discuss the launch and how 'GG' is changing the game.
Hawaii Flooding, Beijing Boycott & Disrupting Death
The White House says the U.S. will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing to protest Chinese human rights abuses.
Santa is back to “sleighing” it on the slopes. More than 230 skiing and snowboarding Kris Kringles took to a western Maine resort on sunday to raise money for charity.
Carlo and Baker catch you up on what you missed over the weekend, starting with the latest, somewhat encouraging, developments re: Omicron.
The parents of a teen accused of killing four students at a Michigan high school have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
It's Friday at long last. Jill and Carlo cover the latest on Omicron, including a possible superspreader event in NYC. Plus, previewing the November jobs report, a new Zoom feature no one asked for, and when it's no longer a good idea to eat Thanksgiving leftovers.
Cheddar recs "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Season 15 premiere, "The Beatles: Get Back," "tick, tick...Boom!," and "Friday After Next."
Extreme weather and supply chain disruptions have reduced supplies of both real and artificial trees this season.
