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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Sunday that Christians and the Roman Catholic Church should seek forgiveness from homosexuals for the way they had treated them. Speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him back to Rome from Armenia, he also said the Church should ask forgiveness for the way it has treated women, for turning a blind eye to child labor and for "blessing so many weapons" in the past. In the hour-long freewheeling conversation that has become a trademark of his international travels, Francis was asked if he agreed with recent comments by...

The Environmental Protection Agency has spent millions of dollars over the last decade on military-style weapons to arm its 200 “special agents” to fight environmental crime. Among the weapons purchased are guns, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear and other military-style weaponry and surveillance activities, according to a new report by the watchdog group Open the Books. “Protecting the environment just got real. With millions of dollars spent on military style weaponry, the EPA is now literally ensconced with all institutional force,” said Adam Andrzejewski, founder of Open the Books and the author...

Turkey says Pope Francis' description of the WW1 mass killing of Armenians as genocide shows "the mentality of the Crusades". The pontiff's remarks have "no relation to reality", Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said. Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were killed by Ottoman Turkish forces in 1915. But Turkey disputes the figure and denies the deaths constituted genocide. It says the deaths were part of a civil conflict triggered by WW1. The row continues to sour Turkish-Armenian relations, drawing in other countries such as Germany, whose parliament recently declared the killings to be...

Many oil companies succumb to the pressure from environmental activists and the media and join the fight against ‘climate change,’ or at least make motions to appear to do so. Not Exxon Mobil. In a previous column, I applauded CEO Rex Tillerson for refusing to climb on the climate change band wagon and for focusing on producing energy from fossil fuels—on which all of us depend—instead. Tillerson and Exxon have not lost their integrity: they are steadfastly holding on to the principles they know their existence and successful value creation depend on, such as the right to liberty, and more...

During an event at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Thursday to discuss how women are disproportionately affected by climate change in developing countries, Jane Harman, president and CEO of the center, said that many of the refugees around the globe today are being displaced by climate change. Harman said it is in the interest of the United States to “build resilience” in these countries to prevent migration and even terrorism. “It seems to me that the U.S. has a direct interest in building government capacity, which will build resilience in the countries you’re talking about,” Harman said....

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Pope Francis hailed Armenia's steadfast Christian heritage on Friday as he arrived in the former Soviet republic for a three-day visit to commemorate the centenary of the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians that the pope himself has called a "genocide." In a largely Orthodox land where Catholics are a minority, Armenians seemed genuinely honored to welcome a pope who has long championed the Armenian cause from his time as an archbishop in Argentina and now as leader of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. Small groups of residents lined his motorcade route, and a gaggle of schoolchildren wearing...

Environmentalists are freaking out that Britain voted in favor of leaving the European Union on Thursday– something activists claim will be “catastrophic” for the environment. British environmentalists took to Twitter to vent their fears about leaving the EU after the “Brexit” vote. Activists have been arguing for months that leaving the EU would allow “climate deniers” to gain more power and undo environmental protections. From an environmental perspective this is catastrophic. Fight now on to ensure EU standards maintained and cooperation on climate continues.

NASA’s top climate scientist took to Twitter Friday morning to criticize British voters for choosing to leave the European Union, calling the so-called Brexit vote “stupid and selfish.” Gavin Schmidt is the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, but long before becoming the space agency’s lead climate scientist, Schmidt was born in Britain. He’s obviously not a fan of U.K. voters’ decision to leave the EU.

Nearly two decades and $108 million worth of “disturbing” data manipulation with “serious and far ranging” effects forced a federal lab to close, a congressman revealed Thursday. The inorganic section of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Energy Geochemistry Laboratory in Lakewood, Colo. manipulated data on a variety of topics – including many related to the environment – from 1996 to 2014. The manipulation was caught in 2008, but continued another six years. “It’s astounding that we spend $108 million on manipulated research and then the far-reaching effects that that would have,” Rep. Bruce Westerman said at a House Natural Resources...

A judge in Spain ruled on Thursday that a cardinal denouncing an attack against the Christian family by a “gay empire” was not, simply by virtue of using that language, committing a hate speech crime but exercising his right to freedom of expression. The criminal proceedings against Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of Valencia were dismissed without further investigation because the magistrate saw no “criminal intent” nor an appeal to “hatred and violence” in the homily delivered by the prelate on May 13. “The family is haunted today, in our culture, by an endless threat of serious difficulties, and this is not...

Meanwhile it’s not safe for anybody now that Barry’s come out of the school bathroom and into the parkland The Pirate in the Oval Office is not only fleecing American citizens out of more than 265 million acres of public lands and waters, he’s rubbing their noses in his park acquisition on his way out of the door. Barack ‘Captain-Kidd-you-not” Obama spent Father’s Day weekend hanging out in the park.

Washington D.C., Jun 22, 2016 / 04:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Obama administration has rejected a challenge to the State of California’s requirement that health care plans include abortion coverage. A major federal budget amendment intended to protect abortion foes does not apply, it ruled. Leaders with the U.S. bishops’ conference said it was “shocking” that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allowed the State of California to force all employers, including churches, to fund and facilitate elective abortions. “Even those who disagree on the issue of life should be able to respect the conscience rights of those...

The consequences of climate change on Boston are expected to be far more calamitous than previous studies have suggested, a new report commissioned by the city says. In the worst-case scenario, sea levels could rise more than 10 feet by the end of the century — nearly twice what was previously predicted — plunging about 30 percent of Boston under water. Temperatures in 2070 could exceed 90 degrees for 90 days a year, compared with an average of 11 days now. And changes in precipitation could mean a 50 percent decline in annual snowfall, punctuated by more frequent heavy storms...

For some, Mgr Ma’s blog post praising the Patriotic Association and acknowledging his mistakes is nothing but “dirt”. For others, he chose humiliation for the “sake of his diocese”. Many wonder why the Holy See has remained silent about the article’s content and the bishop’s persecution. Some suspect the Vatican views the episode in positive terms. Yet, the Ma Daqin affair raises a major question. Has Benedict XVI’s Letter to Chinese Catholics (which describes the Patriotic Association as “incompatible with Catholic doctrine”) been abolished? If it has, who did it? A journey of compromises without truth is full of risks.Vatican...

Wood-fired pizza is bad for the environment, according to science erwrer43535dfs34.jpg Is Brazil's love of authentic wood-fired pizza wrecking havoc on the environment? (iStock) If you love wood-fired pizza or wood-smoked barbecue, then go outside right now and peel that “Go Green” bumper sticker off your Prius. Science says your favorite foods may be major causes of environment pollution. A study conducted by 10 air pollution experts from seven universities has found that burning wood to cook your trendy kale-and-feta pie or your old-fashioned Texas brisket is polluting the air we breathe. The collaborative study, whose findings have been published...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis is amplifying his opposition to capital punishment, saying it's an offense to life, contradicts God's plan and serves no purpose for punishment. In a video message to an anti-death penalty congress in Norway, Francis declared: "The commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty." Francis has gone beyond his predecessors and traditional Catholic teaching in saying there is simply no justification for the death penalty today. He said Tuesday that rather than rendering justice, it fosters vengeance. Church teaching allows for recourse to capital...

Pope Francis is very popular around the world, but there are growing signs that his popularity is dwindling in his own country, Argentina. And there are good reasons for it. When former archbishop of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio was chosen pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, there were massive celebrations in Argentina. He was the first Latin American pope, and a respected priest in Argentina, where he was known to be at odds with the corrupt populist government of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Once in the Vatican, Francis’ frequent calls to Argentine...

It is earth-shattering for a pope to mix-up a two-faced devil with Jesus. It happened last Thursday when Bergoglio mistakenly referred to a column capital on Vézelay Cathedral: a “case of mistaken identity” emblematic of this pontificate, even if a somewhat superficial ghost-writer was probably to blame. It is, on the other hand, in his own style to mix them up (Jesus and the devil) by proposing that Judas had been saved (without repenting) thus giving the impression he hadn’t ended up in hell... It’s difficult to know whether this Pope believes in hell or not – but listening to...

March for Environmental Hope A real thing, Jimmy. If truth is stranger than fiction, it should come as no surprise that Friday marks the start of the first-ever pro-nuclear power march — probably in world history — and it all starts in San Francisco. The March for Environmental Hope, a four-day trek from the City by the Bay to Sacramento, is being pitched as a family-friendly event — and in this case that means more than funnel cakes and bounce houses. Organizers are hoping to tug on the collective heart strings of America by making this about the children, as...

Now that many environmentalists and climate scientists have realized that nuclear energy is essential for addressing global warming, a coalition of environmental groups is sponsoring a multi-day March for Environmental Hope in California in support of nuclear power