Mes: septiembre 2019

Leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia have released its response to a roster of recommendations by a royal commission in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the church. A press release out Friday morning from Australia’s Catholic leaders vows “that the church’s shameful history will never be repeated” and expresses “deep sorrow that vulnerable children were abused, weren’t believed and weren’t supported when seeking justice.” The royal commission — Australia’s highest form of inquiry — laid out 26 recommendations on how the Catholic Church could reform. Leaders say they accept 98 percent of the recommendations, according to the press release. The report was completed after consultation with the Vatican. However, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) — the country’s top Catholic body — isn’t accepting a recommendation that would require priests by law to report abuse to the police when it’s revealed during confession. “The Council … continues to support retention of the civil law protection for the seal of the confessional,” the ACBC said in its response. ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge told reporters Friday the seal of confession was “a non-negotiable element of our religious life and embodies an understanding of the believer and God.”  According to the Reuters news agency, one of Australia’s eight states and a territory have introduced laws making it a crime for priests to fail to report abuse...

The young Sean Penn gave as good as he got with Ray Walston in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” These days, Penn is looking beyond the world of movies, as he tells Tracy Smith, on his own home turf… For Sean Penn, Malibu, California, is more than just his current address; it’s home. He lives just two blocks from his 90-year-old mother. Forty-something years ago, he was just another beach-blonde local kid who surfed when he could, and studied (when he had to) at Malibu Park Junior High. He even got himself elected as the boy’s vice president. Smith asked. “Is there anything that you would tell this kid if you could go back and tell this kid something, the young Sean Penn?” “Yeah, there’s a lot of things that I would tell him,” Penn laughed. “Sure. You don’t necessarily change so much, but you do collect a lot of information along the run.” “So, what would you tell him?” “Here are the bad choices that you are going to make. And there’s nothing that’s going to stop you from making them. But check out how funny it is. You know? You’ll get through them, and everything will be all right.” And he’s done okay. Young Sean Penn, of course, went on to create some of the most celebrated roles in cinematic history, with five Oscar...

(CBS/AP) BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Syrian regime acknowledged for the first time Monday that it possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and said it will only use them in case of a foreign attack and never internally against its own citizens. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the stockpiles are secure, in an apparent response to widespread international concerns that they could fall into the hands of the disparate bands of rebel forces fighting the government. “No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria,” he said in conference broadcast on state TV. “All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.” Syria is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering these lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms, including anti-tank rockets and late-model portable anti-aircraft missiles. Syria’s biggest cities now seeing fightingSyrian rebels: We will “liberate” AleppoSyrian troops, rebels clash in city of Aleppo Makdissi also dismissed the latest overture from the Arab League, which offered Assad “safe exit” for him and his family if were to step down. “This is wishful thinking,” said...