Francis didn’t cite examples in his off-the-cuff request for pardon at the start of his general audience and his spokesman declined to elaborate on what he might have meant. However, the past week has seen its fair share of headline-making news that has involved the church in one way or another.

On the eve of Francis’ big and contentious meeting on family issues, a Vatican monsignor came out as gay and, with his boyfriend by his side, denounced homophobia in the Catholic Church. He was summarily fired from his job in the Vatican’s doctrine office. MORE

John Allen, Jr. opens his remarks to the ADL meeting with this joke,

“I know you have a jam-packed schedule and limited time, so as Henry the Eighth said to each of his wives, ‘I won’t keep you long,’”

Wow, joking about the person responsible for the deaths of thousands of people not to mention the souls lost.  As well as creating his own religion, Henry VIII helped destroy the institution of marriage.  Guess Allen was playing to his perfidious kosher audience.

He then discusses Francis’ trip to Rio in 2013 for World Youth Day.

When he arrived and started to step out of the “Popemobile,” a group of Brazilian nuns rushed him “shrieking like a bunch of teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert.”

Can you picture that?  Did they throw their underwear at him?

After dropping the above bombshells, Allen gets to the meat of his message:
Continue reading →

This is the best theory so far.

Expert Clive Irving points to new warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing that highlight the “immediate and urgent risk” tied to transporting lithium-ion batteries, which are used in cellphones and laptops, on passenger flights…

…Irving theorizes that the batteries could have caused a fire in the hold of the Boeing 777 that overwhelmed the plane’s fire-suppression system. MORE

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) When the World’s Parliament of Religions first met in Chicago in 1893, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and even Spiritualists prayed together.

But Mormons were kept out.

What a difference 122 years make. On Thursday (Oct. 15), when the Parliament of the World’s Religions — a slight adjustment of the name was made a century after the first meeting — convenes in Salt Lake City, it will not only feature a slate of Mormon voices, it will sit in the proverbial lap of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its global headquarters only a five-minute walk away. MORE

SECTION 1. Part 1.85 (commencing with Section 443) is added to Division 1 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
PART 1.85. End of Life Option Act
443. This part shall be known and may be cited as the End of Life Option Act. READ THE ACT – MORE HERE

A bizarre experiment claims to be able to make Christians no longer believe in God and make Britons open their arms to migrants in experiments some may find a threat to their values. MORE

Millions of residents in São Paulo, Brazil face daily water shutoffs unless the city manages its water better. It is not only a problem of drought. The city of 20 million is plagued by failing infrastructure across the city, and it has been unable to deliver the water it does have to residents in need. Without major changes to the city’s infrastructure and planning, commentators say the crisis is bound to continue. MORE

There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Jurors ordered a Wisconsin gun store to pay nearly $6 million on Tuesday to two Milwaukee police officers who were shot and seriously wounded by a gun purchased at the store.

TORONTO (RNS) A Canadian court has cleared the way for a Muslim woman to wear her face veil, or niqab, while taking the oath of citizenship.

The Federal Court of Appeal on Monday (Oct. 5) refused to suspend its ruling from last month that the government may not bar Zunera Ishaq from covering her face during the Canadian citizenship ceremony.

The judge said she found that the government had not demonstrated that refusing the stay “would result in irreparable harm to the public interest.”

The ruling is the third legal defeat for Canada’s Conservative government on the niqab, which has become a hot-button issue in the Oct. 19 federal election.

Following a report British defense officials have instructed fighter jet pilots to shoot down Russian jets over Syria, the military attaché at the British Embassy in Moscow was summoned to provide an explanation.

“He was handed a note with a request to provide official explanations on information, published in the British media, citing high-ranking sources in the Defense Ministry of the country, on alleged directives to use weapons against Russian aircraft ‘in case of threat to their lives,’ received by Royal Air Force pilots,” the statement read., according to a Press TV report. MORE

Californians who are terminally ill will not be able to access drugs with the potential to save or prolong their lives as a result of Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of the Right to Try Act on Sunday.

AB 159, the California Right to Try Act, passed the state assembly and senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“It’s disappointing that Governor Brown couldn’t see the need to allow Californians the right to fight to save their own lives,” said Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D., Whittier), who sponsored the legislation. “Both Democrats and Republicans wanted this for our California’s terminally ill.” MORE

China has told Moscow that they will join in the bombing in Syria from their Aircraft Carrier. This has HUGE implications folks. HUGE!

As the bones of an 11-year-old Italian farm girl traveled over the Chicago Skyway and into Illinois early Monday, police cruisers — from both the Illinois State Police and the Chicago Police Departments — joined her caravan. MORE