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.
The final edition of Hong Kong’s last remaining pro-democracy paper sold out in hours, as readers scooped up all 1 million copies of the Apple Daily.
A pedestrian bridge collapsed over a highway in the nation's capital on Wednesday, sending five people to the hospital.
Authorities say nearly 100 people are still unaccounted for after part of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed in a town outside Miami.
Britney Speaks breaks her silence on an 'abusive' conservatorship, the White House refocuses on crime, Afghanistan on the brink of collapse and more. Plus, Carlo and Baker go through the hiccup cures that you swear by.
John McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus software, has been found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona, a government official has told The Associated Press.
After weeks of regulatory crackdowns and public denouncements, the Chinese government has delivered a crushing blow to bitcoin mining in the country.
Apple Daily was forced to shut down Thursday after five editors and executives were arrested and millions of dollars in its assets were frozen as part of China’s increasing crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous city.
The Supreme Court has ruled that a Pennsylvania public school wrongly suspended a cheerleader over a vulgar social media post.
Human stampedes have been a chronically understudied topic and there's been an uptick in reported crushes as populations have increased.
The Van Gogh Exhibit digitally juxtaposes 40 of the master painter's works and presents them in a 180-degree format.
