Free Republic

In a novel in-air press conference with the head of the Church of England and the head of the Church of Scotland, Pope Francis repeated his remarks first made on January 25 about the need for an end to anti-sodomy laws.Noting that some 50 countries have anti-sodomy laws, Francis said as he was returning from a six-day trip to Africa, “The criminalization of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored.”While the laws criminalize behaviors and not inclinations, Pope Francis conflated the two concepts in his remarks, saying of the anti-sodomy laws: “Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God....

“A dictatorship requires three things: a man, an idea, and a following ready to live for the man and the idea, and if necessary to die for them. If the man is lacking, it is hopeless; if the idea is lacking, it is impossible; if the following is missing, the dictatorship is only a bad joke.”Thus said Joseph Goebbels, the “Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda” for Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. To his list of three requirements for a dictatorship, I would add an obvious fourth (given his office, I’m surprised Goebbels didn’t mention it): propaganda. In order...

Pope Francis admitted on Monday he was frightened by the prospect of an accidental nuclear apocalypse, as he began a weeklong visit to Chile and Peru to bolster a local Catholic Church riven by sex abuse scandals. “I think we are at the very edge,” the pope told reporters aboard his plane when asked about the threat of a nuclear war in the wake of a recent string of tests by North Korea and a false missile alert last week that sparked panic in the US state of Hawaii. “I am really afraid of this. One accident is enough to...