There has been a sharp reaction from the Vatican to a decision by the Catholic Church in Germany to approve blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told journalists in Rome on Monday evening that a local church cannot make decisions that affect the universal church.

Parolin, who is one of the most influential cardinals internationally, said that the Holy See has already expressed itself “clearly and unequivocally” on the subject in the past, and any change required a discussion with the Vatican and the other churches of the world.

However Parolin played down suggestions that the move by German Catholics could be seen as a rebellion. “There have always been tensions and different positions in the Church,” he said.

The Vatican will now continue the dialogue with the German bishops to clarify how those decisions can be integrated into the so-called Synodal Way of the universal Church, he said.

Germany’s synodal assembly on the reform of the Catholic Church decided last week to allow official blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples.

A working group is now to be formed to prepare a handout for the blessing ceremonies “in a timely manner.” The handout is to specify how the blessing ceremonies are to take place. As soon as this handout is ready, each bishop can implement the blessing celebrations in his diocese.

An evaluation of the experience will be carried out in 2026.

Hollywood (United States) (AFP) – Surreal sci-fi film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” dominated the Oscars on Sunday, winning seven golden statuettes including best picture, Hollywood’s most coveted prize.

The unorthodox but beloved movie — which features multiple universes, sex toys and hot dog fingers — also won best director, best actress, best original screenplay, best editing, and both the best supporting actor and actress prizes.

Michelle Yeoh, who is Malaysian, becomes the first ever Asian woman to win best actress, for her portrayal of an exhausted Chinese laundromat owner embroiled in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain — who happens to be her daughter.

“Thank you to the Academy, this is history in the making!” she said.

“Ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime,” added the 60-year-old, whose career began decades ago with martial arts films in Hong Kong.

Brendan Fraser won best actor for playing a morbidly obese teacher in “The Whale,” capping a remarkable career comeback.

Fraser was a major action star in the late 1990s with films like “The Mummy,” before largely disappearing from the public view.

“I started in this business 30 years ago, and things — they didn’t come easily to me,” he said.

He thanked director Darren Aronofsky for “throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship ‘The Whale.'” 

‘American Dream’

“Everything Everywhere,” comfortably the night’s biggest winner, is a word-of-mouth smash hit that has grossed $100 million at the global box office.

In a plot that is not easily described, Yeoh’s heroine Evelyn must harness the power of her alter egos living in parallel universes, which feature hot dogs as human fingers, talking rocks and giant dildos used as weapons.

The film, which features a predominantly Asian cast, was directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — two young filmmakers who were previously best known for an oddball comedy about a talking corpse.

Kwan thanked his “immigrant parents,” while his counterpart thanked his mother for never “squashing my creativity,” including when he had dressed in drag as a child.

“Which is a threat to nobody,” he added, to enormous cheers.

Vietnam-born Ke Huy Quan, 51, who was a major child star in the 1980s with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” completed a stunning comeback from decades in the Hollywood wilderness by winning best supporting actor.

“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage… this is the American Dream,” said Quan.

After the show, he came bounding into the backstage press room, shouting “Wow, wow, wow… Can you believe I’m holding one of these?”

He shared that “Indiana Jones” director Steven Spielberg had grabbed him and said: “You are now an Oscar winner!”

Best supporting actress Jamie Lee Curtis paid tribute to her parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, both Oscar-nominated actors who never won. 

– ‘All Quiet’ makes noise –

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” Netflix’s German-language World War I, finished the night in second place with four awards.

It won best international feature and best cinematography early in Sunday’s ceremony.

As the night progressed, it also gathered Oscars for best original score and best production design.

But it ultimately could not stop the “Everything Everywhere” juggernaut, and lost adapted screenplay to “Women Talking,” and best sound to “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” sequel had been seen as another potential best picture contender, having helped bring audiences back to movie theaters after the pandemic.

While Cruise did not attend Sunday’s ceremony, the night began with a thunderous flyover by two US Navy jets, soaring at 345 mph over the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. 

Host Jimmy Kimmel was then lowered onto the stage, and he quickly launched into a monologue which laid into Will Smith’s infamous attack on Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars.

The specter of “The Slap” has hung over the Oscars since Smith assaulted Rock on stage for cracking a joke about his wife. 

Smith was allowed to stay at the gala, and accept Hollywood’s top male acting prize soon after, but has since been banned from Academy events for a decade.

“If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during the show — you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor, and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech,” joked Kimmel.

– ‘Naatu Naatu’ –

In the night’s other prizes, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” won best animated film, and “Avatar: The Way of Water” won best visual effects.

“Navalny” — about the imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny — won for best documentary.

Dozens of dancers brought a colorful, energetic performance of “Naatu Naatu,” the showstopper tune from Indian crowd-pleaser “RRR,” which won the Oscar for best original song. 

Academy bosses hope that Oscars television ratings will pick up from recent years, calling in heavy hitters from the world of music to perform the other nominated songs.

A dressed-down Lady Gaga sang an emotional, heartfelt rendition of her song “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick.”

And Rihanna — draped in diamonds, including over her baby bump — sang “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which won for best costume design.

Lenny Kravitz performed the annual “In Memoriam” segment.

Cara Delevingne struggled with being herself and revealing her secrets on ‘Planet Sex’.

The model, 30, released the BBC Three series earlier this year, which saw her explore her sexuality and touch herself on camera.

She told Vogue magazine’s April issue about its making: “It was super personal and I didn’t really realise how personal it would be.

“I’d only really learned how to show emotion when I was acting because I didn’t feel worthy enough to feel those things as myself.

“With ‘Planet Sex’, I was just so uncomfortable in front of the camera in the beginning because it was like, ‘Oh, God, I’ve gotta be myself.’”

The show sees Cara, who is dating singer Leah Mason, 31, aka Minke, being moved to the point of tears at the end of her first day on location at the Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, billed as the world’s largest festival for queer women.

She says on the first episode of the show: “I still struggle with being open—really open—about just how much I love women.”

The couple who directed the docuseries, Jessica Chermayeff and Ana Veselic, told Vogue about being overwhelmed by Cara’s willingness to be open.

Jessica said: “I think a lot of celebrities say they’re on a personal journey, but with her it was more than just lip service.

“She was scared in all the right ways.”

Ana added “Cara was very open. Not everything was this perfect platitude statement, this neat little answer that checks all the boxes.

“There were definitely grey areas. As a viewer, I really miss that in conversations like this, because it’s not black and white.”

Jamie Lee Curtis is “concerned” making awards gender neutral will “diminish the opportunities for women”.

The 64-year-old actress – whose child Ruby came out as transgender in 2021 – acknowledged how “very difficult” it is to promote inclusivity with gendered categories but is unsure of how best to tackle the subject without shutting out females.

Asked how she felt to have made this year’s list of female nominees, Jamie said backstage at Sunday’s (12.03.23) Academy Awards – where she won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ – it was a “surreal and proud” experience.

But she added to reporters at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre: “Obviously, I would like to see a lot more women be nominated so that there’s gender parity in all the areas, in all the branches. And I think we’re getting there.

“We’re not anywhere near there, and of course inclusivity then involves the bigger question which is, how do you include everyone when there are binary choices? Which is very difficult.

“As the mother of a trans daughter, I completely understand that.

“And yet to de-gender the [categories] also, I’m concerned will diminish the opportunities for more women, which is something I also have been working hard to try to promote.”

Jamie Lee reiterated the importance of “inclusivity” generally and of including women specifically, in Hollywood and wider society.

She added: “Basically just f***ing more women anywhere, any time.”

Earlier in the evening, Jamie insisted winning her first Oscar was recognition for more than just her.

She said: “I know it looks like I’m here by myself but I am not, I am hundreds of people, The Daniels, Jonathan, Ley Line, the entire crew, my bae Michelle, Ke, Steph, the group of artists who made this movie – we just won an Oscar.

“To my dream team, we just won an Oscars.

“To my family, my beautiful husband Christopher Guest, our daughters Annie and Ruby, my sister Kelly, we just won an Oscar.

“To all of the people who have supported the genre movies I have made these years, the hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together.

She then grew emotional as she paid tribute to her famous parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis.

She added: “And my mother and father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories. I just won an Oscar.”

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis marked 10 years as head of the Catholic Church on Monday with a podcast, a private mass and a series of interviews, one of which triggered a diplomatic spat with Nicaragua.

“It seems like yesterday,” the 86-year-old recalled of his election during a podcast for the official Vatican News outlet — after first having to be told what a podcast was.

Asked what he would like as a gift for his 10-year anniversary, for which he had no public plans beyond a mass with cardinals, Francis added: “Peace. We need peace.”

Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13, 2013, after his predecessor Benedict XVI stunned the world by becoming the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages.

He has said he never expected to be elected, only packing a small suitcase to travel from Argentina to Rome for the conclave on the assumption he would soon be back in Buenos Aires, where he was archbishop.

But he had a vision, and over the next decade he would overhaul the governance of the Church, including cleaning up the Vatican books and taking action against clerical child abuse.

He also shifted many people’s perception of the papacy by engaging less in theology and more with social issues from migration to the environment.

And even while maintaining traditional doctrine on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, he has sought to forge an image of a more open, compassionate Church.

Nicaragua row

“He is a Pope for this time,” said Italian priest Father Roberto, who travelled to Saint Peter’s Square to hear the pope deliver his weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday.

“He managed to grasp today’s needs and to propose them to the whole universal Church… And now he’s giving the Church a push forward for the years to come. He is sowing good for the future.”

However, not everyone is enamoured of Francis’ approach, notably the conservative wing of the Catholic Church. One critic, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, recently criticised the pope’s “doctrinal confusion”.

Francis has never shied away from controversy, regularly using his pulpit to rail against everything from the mafia to consumerism and the arms industry.

In one of his anniversary interviews, with Argentine news outlet Infobae, he described the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega as a “crude dictatorship”.

Ortega’s government — which has long had tensions with the Catholic Church — responded on Sunday by saying it was considering suspending diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

In another interview, with Swiss broadcaster RTS last week, the pope denounced the involvement of all the “great powers” in the Ukraine war. 

He prays regularly for the victims of the war, although he has been criticised for failing to squarely put the blame on Russia as the aggressor.

‘It’s not easy’

Pope Francis has sought to improve ties with Islam during his papacy, and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar mosque, was one of those who sent their congratulations on his 10-year milestone.

In a letter published by Vatican News, al-Tayeb hailed the pope’s efforts to “build bridges of love and fraternity among all human beings”.

Messages of congratulations also came in from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and Anglican leader Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Welby joined Francis on a recent peace mission to conflict-ridden South Sudan, where huge crowds flocked to see the pontiff, as they do everywhere he goes.

The pope continues to travel widely, despite his age and health issues.

Francis was hospitalised in 2021 for colon surgery and now uses a wheelchair due to knee trouble — something he admitted in one interview he was “a little ashamed” about.

The pope has said he would follow Benedict in resigning if he ever became too infirm for the job but insists that is not on his agenda.

Asked by Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano what his hopes for the future were, he replied: “That the Lord be merciful with me. Being the pope is not an easy job.”

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hate crimes surged by 11.6% in 2021 from 2020, with the most frequent ones fueled by racial, ethnic and ancestral bias, the FBI said on Monday.

The release on Monday of the FBI’s new analysis marks the first time the bureau has been able to confidently report on national trends in hate crimes since it transitioned to a new data collection system.

Uniform crime data released by the FBI in October 2022 contained gaps, with only 52% of U.S. law enforcement agencies reporting a full 12 months of 2021 information.

For its supplemental report, FBI officials said they were able to retroactively include crime data from some of the country’s largest cities that had not yet made the switch to the new reporting format.

That meant that some large cities such as Los Angeles and New York City are now included in its hate crime report, which compares trends between 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, Chicago was able to provide two quarters worth of data for the report.

FBI officials said they typically track the 130 most populous cities across 16 states to identify statistically significant trends. Out of the 130 cities, 96 were able to provide the FBI with crime summary data for the new hate crimes report.

Officials said the top five hate crime categories reported for 2021 were anti-Black, anti-white, anti-gay male, anti-Jewish and anti-Asian.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Mark Porter)

‘Blonde’ was named Worst Picture at the Razzie Awards on Friday (10.03.23) night.

The Marilyn Monroe biopic scooped the dubious honour ahead of ‘Good Mourning’, ‘Pinocchio’, ‘The King’s Daughter’ and ‘Morbius’ at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards – which honour the worst in film – as well as Worst Screenplay for writer-director Andrew Dominick.

Awards bosses said ‘Blonde’ – which was nominated for eight Razzies – was “misogynistic, salacious and fallacious” and “shamelessly exploits the memory of the late Marilyn Monroe.”

Meanwhile, Tom Hanks took home Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Screen Combo – for himself and “his latex face” – for his work on ‘Elvis’, with organisers noting the Hollywood favourite has “spent his career stretching his acting capabilities to great success, went a bridge too far with his version of Col. Tom Parker in the otherwise excellent biopic ‘Elvis’.”

Tom was also nominated for Worst Actor for his turn in ‘Pinocchio’ but was beaten to the dubious prize by ‘Morbius’ star Jared Leto, whose co-star Adria Arjona was given Worst Supporting Actress.

The Razzies themselves were handing the Worst Actress prize, taking an award for the first time in their history following their well-criticised decision to include 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong in the category for her performance in movie flop ‘Firestarter’, which they later withdrew.

Razzies co-founder John Wilson previously said of the decision: “Sometimes, you do things without thinking, Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place.

“The recent valid criticism of the choice of 11 year old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance.

“As a result, we have removed Armstrong’s name from the Final Ballot that our members will cast next month. We also believe a public apology is owed Ms. Armstrong, and wish to say we regret any hurt she experienced as a result of our choices.”

Golden Raspberry Awards 2023 list of winners:

Worst Picture:

‘Blonde’

Worst Actor:

Jared Leto – ‘Morbius’

Worst Actress:

The Razzies (for ‘Their 43rd Worst Actress Nominations Blunder’)

Razzie Redeemer Award:

Colin Farrell (From 2004 Worst Actor nominee to 2022 Best Actor Oscar Front-Runner)

Worst Supporting Actor:

Tom Hanks – ‘Elvis’

Worst Supporting Actress:

Adria Arjona – ‘Morbius’

Worst Screen Combo:

Tom Hanks and His Latex-Laden Face (and That Ludicrous Accent) – ‘Elvis’

Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel:

Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’

Worst Directors:

Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun – ‘Good Mourning’

Worst Screenplay:

‘Blonde’, Written for the Screen by Andrew Dominik

James Norton believes society is “scared of the penis”.

The 37-year-old actor is set to bare all in new play ‘A Little Life’ and while he’s ready for the nude scenes, he is unsure if the audience will be, though he believes the sexes have different approaches to seeing genitalia.

He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “There’s still a block when it comes to male nudity, about the penis, and what it looks like, and its size and its shape – and all these things of which we as a culture are still very wary.

“We’re scared of the penis. Men, I think, we’re far more obsessed with it. I mean, women I’ve asked are like, ‘I don’t care, you know, it’s just a penis, whatever’.”

James insisted going nude on stage is “so justified and so necessary” for the story being told.

He said: “But in general, it’s a bit like the violence in this piece and the self-harm: none of it is gratuitous – the nudity is so justified and so necessary in order to find the ultimate shame this man is put through.

“Without it, the story and the piece would suffer; none of it is gratuitous.

“And I feel it. We did one of the scenes recently and, my god, it’s shaming, you know, I lie on the floor naked being kicked and spat on – and it doesn’t get much more degrading than that. I’m there, there’s no journey I have to go on. It’s really embarrassing and horrible.”

But the ‘Happy Valley’ star admitted it has been “very weird” stripping off for rehearsals with co-stars Omari Douglas, Luke Thompson and Zach Wyatt.

He said: “We’re rehearsing, so you’re in a very light room – it’s like being in your workplace and just getting naked, which is very weird.

“In the theatre, even though there’s going to be a hundred times more people, it will be much easier, with the lights [down] and the atmosphere, it will just make sense. Whereas now, because you’re stopping and starting, it feels more exposing.”

Houston (AFP) – In a first test of a Texas law that bans nearly all abortions, a man is suing three women he says helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills to end her pregnancy.

The civil lawsuit by plaintiff Marcus Silva relies on a 2022 law that allows wrongful-death suits to be brought against anyone helping someone obtain an abortion.

The women who allegedly helped provide the pills — which the suit says “were used to murder baby Silva” — could face fines of more than $1 million each.

The suit, filed in district court in Galveston County, is the first to be brought under the Texas law since the Supreme Court last June overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that had long protected abortion rights.

It comes as conservative states across the country have moved to ban abortion outright or sharply curtail it — prompting abortion rights activists to step up efforts to ship abortion pills to states with strict bans.

Jonathan Mitchell, one of Silva’s lawyers, helped design the novel Texas law, according to the Washington Post.

In the suit, Silva alleges that while they were still married, his wife became pregnant in July 2022 but kept it secret.

The complaint says two of the defendants used text messages to tell Silva’s wife where she could obtain abortion pills, while the third arranged for their delivery.

“You could get them from us or you could order some online,” one message read.

A woman identified as Silva’s ex-wife responded, “Your help means the world to me.”

Under the Texas law and similar laws in other states, women seeking abortions do not themselves face civil or criminal liability. 

The Silvas divorced recently.

Marcus Silva plans to sue the manufacturer of the mifepristone pill that was allegedly used, the complaint says.

Anyone who manufactures or distributes abortion pills, including major drugstores like CVS and Walgreens, “will be sued into oblivion,” one of Silva’s lawyers said in a press release.

Silva’s suit comes days after five women in Travis County, Texas sued the state, saying they had been denied abortions despite having dangerous or unviable pregnancies. They said they had been “denied dignified treatment as equal human beings.”

Texas now allows abortion only if the mother’s life is in danger.