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.
Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates will continue to work together as co-chairs of their foundation even after their planned divorce.
Egyptian authorities have announced the release of a hulking shipping vessel that had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week earlier this year.
Carlo's back in the office, where Jill has been toiling for months. They're talking Tropical Storm Elsa as it prepares to make landfall in Florida, President Biden shifting the vaccine strategy, Subway reshuffles the deck, an update on the Britney Spears conservatorship, and why aren't we all working 4-day workweeks yet?
Ukraine's defense minister is under pressure from members of the government over the decision to have female military cadets wear mid-heeled pumps in a parade
The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Elsa is strengthening and could became a hurricane before making landfall along Florida’s northern Gulf coast.
Jill and Carlo are back after a long weekend, talking about the tropical storm that's heading toward Florida and what it could mean to the recovery operations in Surfside. Plus, the new Covid variant to keep an eye on and Mark Zuckerberg's answer to Facebook's woes: more Mark Zuckerberg.
Americans enjoying newfound liberty are expected to travel and gather for cookouts, fireworks and family reunions over the Fourth of July weekend in numbers not seen since pre-pandemic days.
On the Tribeca Festival's 20th anniversary, it had the mission of adding a spark back to the city after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elsa has strengthened into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and it's blowing off roofs and snapping trees in the eastern Caribbean.
American champion Sha’Carri Richardson cannot run in the Olympic 100-meter race after testing positive for a chemical found in marijuana.
