When I was 16, I went to confession for real. I’d been sexually abused by a Catholic high school teacher and her husband. I went to see a priest on the suggestion of one of my abusers, because I was so upset.
Mary-Rose MacColl
The Catholic church is not above the law. We can’t afford to let Archbishop Hart and his colleagues make judgements about what is and isn’t revealed
Archbishop Hart wouldn’t report something said in confession by a child who’s been abused or by an abuser. Non-Catholics don’t understand confession, he said. Confession is sacrosanct, above the law, which is what makes it different from other forms of telling. It’s communication with God of a higher order.
Australia's Catholic church is threatening to fire teachers, nurses and other employees who marry their same-sex partner if gay marriage is legalised, in a dramatic move led by the country's most senior Catholic.
Before she died, she arranged to donate $4 million to Melbourne University, to fund a chair in criminology and a chair in human rights.
And on Monday, Monash University Vice Chancellor Professor Margaret Gardner will announce that Ms McNiff bequeathed her remaining estate of $3.8 million to her alma mater, Monash University. It is Monash's biggest bequest from an alumnus.
Of that, $2 million will establish a Francine McNiff Chair in Criminal Jurisprudence.
At least 30 people have died in riots and arson attacks that have broken out across two states in northern India after a flamboyant spiritual leader was convicted of raping two of his female followers.
The Indian army was deployed in the city of Panchkula on Friday shortly after the court found Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of sexual assault. The self-styled “godman” and leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect has been taken into custody and will reportedly be flown by helicopter to a jail in Haryana state before sentencing on Monday.
