News Briefs

Pope Francis joined Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner and Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., superior general of the Society of Jesus, in a visit to a new homeless shelter for men in Rome on Oct. 15. • In 2014, a recent high of 1,400 cases of blasphemy were registered in Pakistan, while its courts sentenced three people to death and six to life imprisonment for blasphemy. • Until an investigation into how the state twice received the wrong drugs for the lethal cocktail used in Oklahoma’s executions is complete, Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced on Oct. 16 that his office would not request execution dates for prisoners on death row. • The Constitution’s right to bear arms has been “perverted” by a gun industry seeking profits at any cost, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago wrote in an op-ed published on Oct 9, arguing that the nation’s founding fathers could not have anticipated the widespread availability of “military-grade assault weapons that have turned our streets into battlefields.” • With 30,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 14, Pope Francis interrupted his catechesis to ask “in the name of the church…your forgiveness for the scandals which have occurred recently both in Rome and at the Vatican.”