Dec 09 2013
Blase Bonpane on the New Pope
Blase Bonpane is the Director of the Office of the Americas, and a life-long human rights activist whose work took him to Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and many other countries. He entered the priesthood early in his life, but eventually broke with the church over his political views. Blase Bonpane wrote his autobiography called Imagine No Religion and also hosts KPFK’s World Focus every Sunday at 10 am.
Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar recently interviewed Blase Bonpane about Pope Francis and his political reforms.
Watch a video of the interview here: http://youtu.be/3X_pAY6Z8tU
Bradford Betz recorded this interview.
Uprising’s guest expert Arun Gupta, Independent Journalist and regular contributor to the Guardian, In These Times, The Progressive, and Truthout, and co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and the Indypendent, analyzes today’s news headlines:
Just hours after Nelson Mandela’s death was announced to the world last week, the mythologizing had begun. Tributes poured in from leaders around the world who offered up a sanitized image of a man who helped bring about the end of apartheid. Politicians who had once held Mandela at arms length now waxed eloquently about his contributions to the world …
Pope Francis has made headlines yet again for announcing a new investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. His predecessor, Pope Benedictus, had also overseen an internal investigation but was implicated in covering up sexual crimes. 
There aren’t too many family owned businesses that can survive for 75 years. There’s even fewer that can do it with integrity. But the Laemmle Arthouse theater chain of Southern California is one such enterprise. 
The legendary South African liberation fighter and former President Nelson Mandela died last night at 8:50 pm in Johannesburg. 
Hundreds of cities around the country witnessed walkouts and rallies by workers in the fast food industry and their allies yesterday. The major coordinated action followed from a similar action in August and comes less than a week after Black Friday labor actions by Walmart employees and a day after President Obama gave a major speech decrying skyrocketing income inequality in …
