WeeklyRoundUp

Weekly Roundup: Police force, conversion therapy, and Pope Francis’ new pop song

Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Here’s all of this week’s news that’s fit to link:

A South Carolina police officer was charged with murder in the shooting of an unarmed black man. Earlier this year we interviewed Catholic moral theologian and former police officer Tobias Winright about the use of police force. He offered more thoughts this week on the South Carolina shooting.

A jury found Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on four counts of murder and 26 other charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.

The White House announced late Wednesday that it will work to ban the use of so-called “reparative therapy”–also known as gay conversion therapy–for young people.

Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday challenged two of the United States’ bedrock principles in the nuclear negotiations, the New York Times reports, declaring that all economic sanctions would have to be lifted on the day any final agreement was signed and that military sites would be strictly off limits to foreign inspectors.

The Los Angeles Times explains how a plan to ration water in Southern California will work.

Hundreds of students and alumni from a Catholic high school in Des Moines, Iowa protested the school’s decision to not hire a teacher who administrators found out was gay.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to find out whether teenagers who are being housed in Catholic Charities–operated facilities (after being apprehended as unaccompanied migrants) have access to contraception and abortion.

The University of Michigan canceled a showing of the film “American Sniper” after nearly 300 protesters spoke out, saying the film advances “negative and misleading stereotypes” against Muslims. The university has since reversed its decision.

Twitter says it suspended 10,000 ISIS-linked accounts in one day.

And now for the papal rapid fire roundup

This week, Pope Francis:

  • Wrote a pop song.
  • Talked about genocide, sort of.
  • Said children are never a mistake.
  • Gave a lot of kisses.

About the author

Sarah Butler Schueller

Sarah Butler Schueller is a senior editor at U.S. Catholic.