Australia

Australia to amend religious freedom bills to consider health facilities
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Oct 17, 2019
The Australian government said it will make changes to religious freedom legislation concerning religious hospitals and aged-care facilities, after the Catholic Church pushed for changes to a recently released draft legislation package.
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Australian diocese to pay millions in settlement in one abuse case
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Sep 28, 2019
Australia’s Ballarat Diocese will pay up to $3 million (US$2.03 million) in a landmark compensation claim for clerical sexual abuse after a victim, code name JCB, won an out-of-court settlement for abuse during the early 1990s by Gerald Ridsdale, a former priest.
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Australian states to have priests report abuse disclosed in confession
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Sep 26, 2019
The Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania have become the latest in the country to pass legislation criminalizing priests who fail to report the abuse of children disclosed during confession.
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New admission by diocese could cost Australian Church millions in claims
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Sep 13, 2019
The Australian Catholic Church could face tens of millions of dollars in compensation claims after the Diocese of Ballarat in Victoria state admitted, for the first time, it knew of the behavior of a pedophile priest yet continued to move him around from parish to parish.
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Some Australians fear religious freedom laws won’t give enough protection
- Catholic News Service, Church in Oceania
- Aug 28, 2019
The Australian government is preparing to introduce the country’s first religious freedom laws, but some senior Catholic clerics are concerned they may not go far enough.
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Anti-Pell vandalism at campus of Australian Catholic University
- Church in Oceania
- Aug 23, 2019
A banner at a campus of the Australian Catholic University has been vandalized with graffiti attacking Cardinal George Pell, a day after the appeal of his conviction for historical child sex abuse was denied.
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