Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the death of Pope Francis and the outpouring of grief and sadness around the world

as Catholics and other Christians recognize the loss of a good man who showed compassion and empathy to all,

even if he was not able to make the reforms of inclusion, ordaining

women and accepting gays.

Joining us is Kenneth Briggs, who wrote for the National Catholic Reporter and was a professor

at Lafayette College and a former New York Times religion editor.

He's the author of Power of Forgiveness, double-crossed, uncovering the Catholic Church's

betrayal of American nuns, and the invisible bestseller, searching for the Bible in America.

Then we'll explore further the gap between the breath of fresh air Pope Francis was to many,

who was also the leader of an institution controlled by men and gripped by ritual

and tradition, he was unable or unwilling to change.

Joining us is Francis Kissling, the president of the Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy,

who is a visiting professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico,

where she teaches reproductive health and ethics

and serves on the board of the Journal of Feminist Ethics.

She was president of Catholics for Choice for 25 years, stepping down when she became a Radcliffe

Fellow at Harvard.

Then finally, we'll examine the latest Heg-Seth scandal at the Pentagon involving the woefully unqualified white nationalist, racist, book-burning reality TV hire of Trumps, who, after spilling top secrets on an insecure group chat, is now found to have shared top secrets with his wife, brother, and lawyer on another signal group check that was not,

quote, clean on OPSEC, as he claimed on the first one.

Joining us is Lawrence Corb, a senior fellow at the Center of American Progress and a senior

...