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Legal Matters Vatican

Prosecutor seeks prison sentence for Cardinal Becciu 

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.

Legal Matters Vatican

Closing arguments begin in Vatican financial trial

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.

Legal Matters United States

Disgraced former cardinal ‘not competent’ to stand trial

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.

Legal Matters Medical

Calls for legal protections for aborted babies born alive

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.

Health Legal Matters

Calvary Health Care asks ACT Supreme Court to block ‘hostile’ takeover

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. 

Legal Matters

Religious jurors more likely to find secular defendants guilty

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.

Legal Matters

Court upholds ruling against Catholic Church over paedophile priest

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.

Benedict XVI Legal Matters

Prosecutors drop case of alleged cover-up against Benedict XVI

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.

Legal Matters

Project gives free legal support for African youth

A program that will offer free legal support and information for members of the African-Australian community, including youths in trouble with the law, is set to be launched in Adelaide early next year. Source: The Southern Cross.