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In yet another laser beam incident, crew on a flight carrying Pope Francis reported a laser beam sighting to air traffic control in Mexico City:
Alitalia flight AZ4000 was travelling from Havana with the Pope on board, and was preparing to land when the laser was spotted.
No crew or passengers were injured by the beam, the airline added.[...] "This is yet another incident that shows how serious and widespread the issue of laser attacks on aircraft is," said Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), in response to the case involving the Pope's plane. "Modern lasers have the power to blind and the potential to dazzle and distract pilots during critical phases of flight," he told the BBC. "Shining a laser at an aircraft is illegal and dangerous and puts all those on board and on the ground nearby at completely unnecessary risk."
Aboard the plane headed from Rome to Mexico, the Pope said that contraception may be the "lesser evil" for women at risk of catching the Zika virus. In comments made on the ground, he chastised Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump for his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border.
In another story from the UK laser crime beat, Englishman Philip Houghton has been sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for admitting to shining a laser pen at a Humberside Police helicopter that was investigating a shooting.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 19 2016, @12:36PM
> In comments made on the ground, he chastised Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump for his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border.
He went one better than that. He actually said that anybody saying the kind of things that Trump is saying couldn't be described as a Christian. [bbc.co.uk]
Trump got all butt-hurt and responded that the Pope "doesn't have the right" to question somebody else's faith.
1 - Not religious myself so I don't really have a dog in this fight, but it's fun to watch from the sidelines.
2 - Not exactly a fan of Popes in general, but I'd pick this guy over Trump any day.
3 - Again, not into this whole religion thing, but surely if *any* mortal human gets to say who is and isn't christian, it's the mutherfreaking pope.
4 - I'm sure Mr Trump misspoke. I'm sure what he meant to say was "Of course his big-hattiness has the right to question my faith, just as I have the right to disagree with him and say all the pants-on-head crazy shit that I regularly spew." Because, you know, free speech. You're not an authoritarian, constitution-wiping, free-speech-hating unAmerican asstunnel are you, Mr Trump?
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 19 2016, @12:39PM
Oh yeah, nearly forgot:
5 - Trump went on to blame the Pope's remarks on Mexico. America, where the fuck did you dig this guy up from?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @03:16PM
In the meantime, Hillary can't make up her mind if she's a liar or not.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 19 2016, @03:41PM
Well, she's a politician isn't she? That should answer any question about whether or not she's a liar.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Friday February 19 2016, @01:00PM
Again, not into this whole religion thing, but surely if *any* mortal human gets to say who is and isn't christian, it's the mutherfreaking pope.
He's kind of in hot water for how did this guy get in charge, WRT to him not even being Catholic. He's kind of a leftie political activist who moonlights in religion. I mean why be a Catholic if the pope today is basically a unitarian universalist. Not that there's anything wrong with the UU, other than pretending you aren't one when you are, or pretending the two groups are separate when they're rapidly doing some unification. So what is a standard politician response to someone questioning your authority, why, question someone elses! So its not me who's not catholic, its trump who's not christian.
Online there's a pix making the rounds of the city walls at the Vatican with the Pope's headline.
Luckily for Trump, its been an American tradition for decades to ignore what the pope says, and the over 70 crowd supposedly likes Hillary anyway so it doesn't matter.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @01:18PM
I'm pretty sure they checked that he is, indeed, Catholic. Note that for deciding whether he is Catholic, the only thing that has to be checked is whether he was baptised by a Catholic priest. If that is the case, according to the rules of the church he is Catholic, no matter what he thinks, says, believes or does. I think even if you get excommunicated, you don't stop being Catholic, you just lose the right to take part in the rituals.
(Score: 2) by CortoMaltese on Friday February 19 2016, @02:57PM
You are indeed correct, "excommunication does not expel the person from the Catholic Church, but simply forbids the excommunicated person from engaging in certain activities..."
If you want the opinion of a Catholic, in words of G.K Chesterton “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”,
I'm of the opinion that Francis isn't any more to the left than JPII, only that American media always focused on the anti-communist side of JPII and ignored well everything else:
"The goods of this world are originally meant for all. The right to private property is valid and necessary, but it does not nullify the value of this principle. Private property, in fact, is under a ‘social mortgage’, which means that it has an intrinsically social function, based upon and justified precisely by the principle of the universal destination of goods."
"We are therefore faced with a serious problem of unequal distribution of the means of subsistence originally meant for everybody, and thus also an unequal distribution of the benefits deriving from them"
Even pope Leo XIII Wrote in 1891:
"The richer class have many ways of shielding themselves, and stand less in need of help from the State; whereas the mass of the poor have no resources of their own to fall back upon, and must chiefly depend upon the assistance of the State. And it is for this reason that wage-earners, since they mostly belong in the mass of the needy, should be specially cared for and protected by the government"
(Score: 2) by subs on Friday February 19 2016, @02:28PM
WRT to him not even being Catholic
Citation needed.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday February 19 2016, @02:49PM
The Pope has never been primarily a left-wing activist type. His jobs prior to becoming a priest were:
- Club bouncer
- Chemist
He was actually less political than, say, John Paul II prior to his papacy.
What is true is that he sees a role for the Catholic Church as being in significant part a charity organization. There are two reasons for that:
1. Most reasonable interpretations of "Love thy neighbor" imply that you should make sure that the people around you have food, clothing, and shelter. The Catholic Church has by and large taken that to heart throughout much of its history.
2. Throughout South America and much of Africa, the Catholic Church is the largest source of charitable aid around. They often take on that role because the governments are either oppressive dictatorships (e.g. Argentina and Chile under their military governments) or simply incapable of bringing the resources to bear (e.g. Haiti).
Also, all of his rhetoric about left-wing economics is also rooted in Christianity: When you're following a guy who supposedly said things like "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." and beat up bankers, that leads you to a fairly left-wing economic platform.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fadrian on Friday February 19 2016, @06:14PM
Hey dummy, the walls around the Vatican were built ca. 800 AD. I doubt anyone's going to tear down a historical structure to make a political point. Plus, the portals to the wall have been unguarded and allow all to pass freely for at least the last couple hundred years.
Your retarded "Trump"eting annoys me.
That is all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 20 2016, @02:13AM
> He's kind of a leftie political activist who moonlights in religion.
Sounds rather like Jesus doesn't it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @03:08PM
The Pope fell into Trump's trap. Trump needed a diversion after the disastrous debate where he blamed 9/11 on Bush 43 and pretty much let Clinton off the hook for same, which is a major violation of GOP scripture. And the Pope isn't all that popular in the South.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @05:30PM
I can't believe I'm defending Trump here, but really?
Regarding 3: In America, Roman Catholicism (the only denomination of Christianity that recognizes the pope's authority) is a minority sect. The Catholics, like every other denomination, have their own definition of Christianity and believe it's the one true definition. Not only do members of other denomination see the Pope as not in a position of authority, but they also see him not even using the right definition.
Regarding 4: There's a difference between legal rights and moral rights. If we assume he meant "no moral right", we get an unremarkable statement of religious dissension; if we assume he meant "no legal right", it's a rejection of the first amendment. You've presented no evidence supporting the more outrageous interpretation, and I'm unwilling to jump to that conclusion without it. The jackass makes plenty of incendiary statements without us having to twist the ones that aren't.