Pope Frances made the comments on Thursday during an interview that ran today.
The BBC is reporting that Pope Francis has told a reporter that “about 2%” of his priests are child molesters. What’s truly astounding is not the number, but that Francis seems to be the first Pope willing to confront the problem head on through transparency.
Pope Frances conducted the interview last Thursday with La Repubblica which has published it today. Reports the BBC:
In the interview, Pope Francis was quoted as saying that the 2% estimate came from advisers. It would represent around 8,000 priests out of a global number of about 414,000.
The interview was conducted by reporter Eugenio Scalfari who did not record it.
According to the BBC, Pope Frances also opened the door to ending rules regarding celibacy. Pope Frances noted that the Vatican ordered Priests to be celibate 900 years after the death of Jesus Christ. Some think the Pope was suggesting there is nothing in the bible commanding priests and nuns to be celibate.
Responding to the 2% figure in the article, a Vatican spokesman insisted there were no Cardinals who were child molesters.
Once again Joan River is in danger of being kicked out of the Writers Guild.
Under Deal Made With Guild in 2013 Rivers Promised to Stop Writing During Strike, But Rivers Continues To Write Violating Union Rules
Joan Rivers could face expulsion from the Writers Guild of America for failure to stop writing on a television show that writers are currently striking. That show, according to a union official, is E’s “Fashion Police” hosted by Rivers. Before going on strike Rivers’ writers were earning $610.00 a week with no health insurance. Their strike against E’s “Fashion Police” continues while Rivers violates union rules by writing on the show.
Rivers’ troubles with the union started back in October of 2013 after the Writers Guild scheduled a disciplinary hearing to determine if Rivers should be expelled for scabbing. Right before that hearing was to take place an embarrassed Rivers assured the Guild that she would stop writing and support her writers in their efforts to join the very same union she has been a member of for decades. Now once again she could get kicked out of it.
According to an interview on Pacifica Radio with Melodie Shaw, field representative and organizer for The Writers Guild of America West, Rivers has broken her promises to the union and has even given interviews calling her writers “idiots” and “schmucks” for organizing.
Shaw added that Rivers verbally abused the writers on E’s Fashion Police after they approached her about joining the union.
You’d think Congress could pass a bill that makes them immune from all those unnecessary environmental regulations that slow down the business of slowing down congress.
Who knows? Maybe Congressman Graves thinks somebody should inspect the air for asbestos. Maybe there should be some kind of federal agency for that kind of stuff? Nah.
Joan Rivers is not a nice a person according to a spokesperson for the Writers Guild of America. Melodie Shaw, field representative and organizer for The Writers Guild of America West, said that Rivers verbally abused the writers on E’s Fashion Police after they approached her about joining a union. Shaw said this during an interview airing Friday on Pacifica Radio’s David Feldman Show.
Shaw said the Fashion Police writers were earning $610 a week without health insurance. In 2013 they decided it was time to go union after two other E comedy programs, hosted by Chelsea Handler and Joel McHale, joined the WGA (Writers Guild of America). Shaw said those two programs went union, “in no small measure due to Handler and McHale supporting their writers every step of the way.”
Shaw said Rivers, a member of the WGA for several decades, “turned on her writers” during a meeting “hurling expletives” and then storming out when they told her they couldn’t live on $610 a week without health insurance.
In response to Rivers’ failure to assist them in joining the WGA, Fashion Police writers approached the union on their own, and then staged a walkout. Shaw said Rivers, a WGA member, continued to work despite the walkout which is a violation of union rules. This prompted the WGA to schedule a disciplinary hearing to determine whether they would revoke Rivers’ union membership. In October of 2013, right before her hearing was to be held, an apologetic Rivers contacted the WGA and promised she would support her writers and help them get a union contract. Shaw said that based on those assurances the WGA immediately cancelled Rivers’ disciplinary hearing.
Fashion Police writers voted unanimously to join the union in December of 2013. Under federal law Fashion Police was then required to negotiate with the WGA. Shaw said since that vote Rivers has not negotiated in good faith, rarely returning calls from the union and offering her writers a contract way below union standards. Shaw said Rivers even went so low as to tell the press that her writers were “schmucks” and “idiots” for organizing.
When asked if Rivers had been kicked out of the Writers Guild, Shaw said not yet because the WGA is still hoping they can cut a deal with E’s Fashion Police.
Shaw was a guest on the David Feldman Show broadcast nationwide on Pacifica Radio and available as a podcast on iTunes. Feldman said he invited Shaw on his program after watching Rivers grow hostile and storm off the set during a CNN interview earlier in the week after the host asked if she was “mean.”
“It seems to me,” said Feldman, “that how you treat your employees is a pretty good barometer of whether or not you’re cruel. $610 a week with no health insurance? That seems pretty cruel to me.”
Feldman began the interview by asking Shaw if Joan Rivers was mean. Shaw responded, “Yes.”
Multihyphenate Mick Betancourt sits down with Laura House and Jerry Stahl to some amazing stories about his unorthodox upbring, and how he wound up becoming a writer and producer on shows like Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Chicago Fire. Catch Mick at Timothy O’ Toole’s on July 12th in Chicago. You can get tickets here. Plus, David talks with KPFK’s John Matthews about the impeachment of President Obama. Also, a song by Will Ryan and the Cactus County Cowboys.
The Republicans are pretty good at disguising what their end game truly is. But those core beliefs fly under the radar because Republicans get plenty of help from sane, rational and decent people like you and me who simply refuse to accept that anybody could be so craven as to believe some Americans deserve to be poor. It’s pretty remarkable that the same zealots who don’t want the theory of evolution taught in our schools could develop an entire economic policy based on survival of the fittest. Or maybe it’s just based on pure hatred.
Occasionally we run across moments of candor. This one is from Michele Bachmann who is a joke, but that doesn’t mean she’s joking. She not only means what she says, she’s also parroting, word for word, what she’s been taught by the high priests of GOP thought when the doors are closed and the room has been swept for bugs. This is what she accidentally blurted out about the minimum wage back in 2005. The only mistake she made was revealing what she and so many in her party actually believe.
Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.
“What I love about ‘The David Feldman Show’ is I’m listening to a middle-aged guy getting radicalized, but he still can’t stop telling dick jokes with his comic friends from the ’80s.” – Michael Brooks, The Michael Brooks Show
“I love how David gives both sides of a story: profound and anti-found.” – Congressman Alan Grayson
“A podcast for folks who believe that strong political convictions and a sense of humor do not have to be mutually exclusive.” – Nathan Rabin, The AV Club
Support the Show
As long as you’re here, we could use your help. This show is a labor of love and nobody is getting rich from it. There are a lot of ways you can help out, please click here to find out more.
