Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson has appealed his 12-month detention sentence for failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse. The allegations involved two altar boys who were abused by a paedophile priest. They disclosed the abuse to him in the 1970s. Wilson, who is 67, is the most senior Catholic official in the world to Read more
Bishop Peter Comensoli has been named as the new Archbishop of Melbourne. Comensoli will be installed as archbishop on 1 August. He has been the Bishop of Broken Bay in New South Wales for the past three years. When he is installed, he will take over from recently-retired Archbishop Denis Hart at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Read more
A new law requiring priests to break confession seal is ‘premature and ill-judged’, says Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge. Priests are not using the seal of confession to protect child abusers. Removing a priest’s legal protection will not make children safer, Coleridge says. While he agrees children’s safety is paramount, he Read more
An Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) investigation into domestic violence in the Christian Church has drawn criticism from the ABC’s own media monitoring TV programme ‘Media Watch’ and Catholic leaders. ‘Media Watch’ presenter Paul Barry said although the programme reporting the investigation didn’t convince him the ABC was “waging war” on Christianity, its treatment of some Read more
The Archbishop of Brisbane has admitted to “spectacular bungling” and “drastic failure” in dealing with a child sex abuse victim and flagged his willingness to revisit cases where victims’ needs have not been met. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Archbishop Mark Coleridge as saying that it was wrong that insurers and lawyers had determined how Read more
The Church isn’t a business but without money there can be no mission, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane has said in a message to his diocese. Introducing a new approach to archdiocesan fundraising, he said some of the strategies that worked well in the past no longer work as well as they did. “Therefore, we Read more
Archbishop Mark Coleridge was installed as the seventh Bishop and sixth Archbishop of Brisbane on May 11. He indicated that he is determined to lead in facing “the Church’s greatest challenge in these times”. Preaching during his Liturgical Reception of him as Archbishop of Brisbane in the Cathedral of St Stephen he said, “Our greatest Read more