Welcome to Thunderdome

The new pope gave an insight into his choice of the name Francis in an audience with journalists Saturday -- and said how he wished for a church that was both poor and "for the poor."

“We can find no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing,”

“We know that Jesus wanted to show solidarity with every person,” he said

“I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened perhaps as never before, from within and without,” he said at the end of his speech, delivered in slow, cautious English. “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.”

Speaking aboard the papal plane from Philadelphia to Rome, where the pontiff arrived on Monday (Sept. 28) morning, Francis said clerical abuse is “nearly a sacrilege” and the Catholic Church must take a tough line.

“And if someone does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right,” he added.

Francis said conscientious objection had to be respected in legal structures. “Otherwise we would end up in a situation where we select what is a right, saying: ‘This right has merit, this one does not.’”

Zimbabwe's infamously outspoken President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country for over three decades, went on a tirade against extended human rights to gay people in his country during a speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday.

"We reject attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs," said Mugabe, rallying against perceived international interference in his country's affairs.

With respect to people like me, who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, we are “intrinsically disordered,” so says the church. Let that sink in. “Intrinsically” means there’s not a damned thing you can do about it; it’s just the way you are. “Disordered” means nature has made a categorical mistake with you, you are fundamentally flawed, and the most you can hope for from the church is pity, but what you will probably get instead is condemnation and exclusion.
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But the controversy surrounding this county clerk is not about what she believes, but rather about the job a county clerk is required to do by law, which includes issuing marriage licenses to those qualified couples who apply for them. Kim Davis has a constitutional right to her opinion, but she does not have a constitutional right to stay in a job whose duties she is unwilling to perform.

Despite Francis' call for a free and open debate, Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, a key synod organizer who delivered the introductory remarks, made clear that there is not much to discuss on the divorce-remarried issue since church teaching is clear forbidding the sacraments for these Catholics.

In his opening welcome Monday, Francis repeated a phrase he used in his homily a day earlier that the church's law cannot become an impediment to its mission of mercy.

"God will hold accountable the slavers of our day, and we must do everything to make sure that these situations do not happen again," said the pontiff. "The flow of capital cannot decide the flow and life of people."