In a line for his vision for renewal and change, Pope Francis captured something that is true for the church across the world but most especially for the church in Australia. The pope described our time in the church and wider society as “not so much an era of change as a change of era.” Read more
Legendry Australian broadcaster, John Laws, July 4, interviewed Fr Frank Brennan SJ on 2SM. The interview concerned Archbishop Philip Wilson’s refusal to stand down as Archbishop of Adelaide after his conviction for concealing child sex abuse. One of Australia’s leading radio personalities, the ever-popular Laws comments regularly on issues impacting life in Australia. Frank Brennan Read more
An Australian Jesuit priest has been banned by the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart from speaking publicly about same-sex marriage in the archdiocese. The ban was announced after Fr Frank Brennan SJ defended Catholics’ right to speak according to their conscience about the issue. He had been invited to speak at a CatholicCare Tasmania conference in 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
Laws requiring Catholic priests to break the seal of confession in some cases have been passed by the Australian Capital Territory’s Legislative Assembly in Canberra. The new laws expand the Reportable Conduct Scheme governing allegations of child abuse and misconduct to include religious organisations. The legislation makes it illegal for priests to fail to report Read more
An apostolic administrator will run the Australian archdiocese of Adelaide, as Archbishop Philip Wilson has been found guilty of neglecting to report clergy sexual abuse as a priest in the 1970s. Pope Francis says Bishop Gregory O’Kelly of the neighboring diocese of Port Pirie has been selected as the administrator. Read more
Australia’s redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse at Commonwealth institutions has the Australian Catholic Church’s support. The Church has committed to taking part in the new nationwide scheme. “We support the Royal Commission’s [into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse] recommendation for a national redress scheme, administered by the Commonwealth, and we are keen Read more
Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide has been found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse. He is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged and convicted of this offence. The 67-year old faces a possible two-year prison sentence. Wilson will be sentenced next week. He has announced he will stand down from Read more
A new group will monitor the Church’s response to child sexual abuse in Australia. The Australian Catholic bishops and religious congregations established the new advisory group. Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne says the new Implementation Advisory Group will monitor and progress the response to the findings of the Royal Commission on Child Sex Abuse. It Read more
A former president of Nauru says Australia is “complicit in a political prosecution.” Nauru has abolished a decades-old link to Australia’s legal system, removing the island nation’s highest court of appeal in a move critics have described as “shocking” and “concerning” for human rights. On 12 December last year, the Nauruan government quietly informed Australia it wished to unilaterally withdraw Read more