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Legal Matters
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South African bishops file class-action suit against Perth-based mining company
- . 21 August 2023
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has initiated a class-action suit against a global mining company, based in Australia, on behalf of current and former miners who turned to the Church for help after contracting incurable lung diseases. Source: CNA.
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Prosecutor seeks prison sentence for Cardinal Becciu
- . 27 July 2023
The Vatican public prosecutor has asked the judge in Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s financial malfeasance trial to sentence the embattled prelate to seven years and three months in prison. Source: CNA.
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Closing arguments begin in Vatican financial trial
- . 20 July 2023
The Vatican prosecutor insists his indictments of 10 people, including a cardinal, for alleged financial crimes held up under two years of testimony, criticism and defence motions, as he began closing arguments in a trial that exposed the unseemly financial underbelly of the Holy See. Source: AP.
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Disgraced former cardinal ‘not competent’ to stand trial
- . 3 July 2023
Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial in Massachusetts on charges that he sexually abused a teenage boy nearly 50 years ago, according to a prosecution expert. Source: OSV News.
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Calls for legal protections for aborted babies born alive
- . 13 June 2023
Catholic bioethics and legal experts have told a Senate committee that children born alive after an abortion should be granted legal protections. Source: Catholic Weekly.
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Calvary Health Care asks ACT Supreme Court to block ‘hostile’ takeover
- . 8 June 2023
The ACT Government is set to learn within days whether it can proceed with what has been described as a “hostile” takeover of Calvary Public Hospital Bruce. Source: Canberra Times.
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Religious jurors more likely to find secular defendants guilty
- . 19 April 2023
A new study has found that defendants who swear a secular affirmation are more likely to be found guilty by religious jurors than those who swear on a book of scripture like the Bible or Koran. Source: The Australian.
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Court upholds ruling against Catholic Church over paedophile priest
- . 5 April 2023
Victoria’s highest court has ruled that the Catholic Church is vicariously liable for sexual abuse by a paedophile priest because he was a “servant of the diocese” whose role gave him the “power and intimacy” to access and abuse children. Source: The Guardian.
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Prosecutors drop case of alleged cover-up against Benedict XVI
- . 24 March 2023
A potential legal case against the late pope Benedict XVI over his handling of abuse during his time as archbishop of Munich has been dropped. Source: CNA.