Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Pope Francis next month is set to make what would be his first visit outside Rome since Italy was put under lockdown in early March when it became the first country in Europe to feel the full brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. The pope is to journey to Assisi, the birthplace in the central Italian region of Umbria of his namesake saint, to sign an authoritative papal letter to clergy and faithful worldwide — a document known as an encyclical, the Vatican said Saturday. The encyclical is expected to stress the value of brotherly relations during and after the pandemic, a theme Francis evoked repeatedly during the pandemic. Encyclicals lay out a pontiff’s views on important issues and usually shape Catholic teaching and policy in the years to come. The encyclical will be titled in Italian “‘Fratelli tutti’ sulla fraternita’ e l’amicizia sociale.” The English-language version’s title wasn’t given, but it roughly translates to “‘Brothers all’ on brotherhood and social friendship.” Francis has repeatedly stressed how the covid-19 pandemic dramatically revealed how fragile existence can be and how vitally important it is for people to unite in helping each other, with special attention to the poor.
■ Attorneys for R. Kelly want to question a convicted member of the Latin Kings gang who says he beat up the jailed R&B singer in a Chicago cell. Kelly’s lawyers filed a motion Friday in federal court to question Jeremiah Farmer under oath, the Chicago Tribune reported. Farmer said in a court filing last week in Hammond, Ind., that he attacked Kelly on Aug. 26 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center because he wanted to shed light on wrongdoing by the government in his own criminal case. Farmer was able to slip away from an employee at the center, enter a cell and repeatedly hit Kelly in the head, according to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons report attached to Farmer’s filing. Kelly, 53, faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying him with girls. The singer has denied ever abusing anyone. “It appears that MCC personnel simply followed Mr. Farmer, allowed him to carry out the attack, and then only intervened after Mr. Kelly had already sustained serious injuries,” Kelly’s attorney Michael Leonard wrote in the motion.