Free Republic

Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell are working to keep the 77-year-old Australian prelate out of jail pending an appeal of his convictions of sexually abusing minors. The highest ranking churchman to be charged with sexual offenses, Pell was convicted in December 2018, but details of his trial were under a publication ban until Tuesday. It has now been revealed that Pell was convicted of one charge of sexually penetrating a child under 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act on a child under 16, the BBC reported. Judge Peter Kidd lifted the ban after prosecutors dropped a second...

An attack on two schools in Sydney for teaching Christian morality has some broader lessons FOUR CORNERS LOGO / ABC Four Corners, a flagship program on Australia’s ABC, broadcast a scathing attack on two private schools in Sydney on Monday evening. Their crime: encouraging students to be chaste. For MercatorNet’s international readers, this will be just a storm in a teacup, but journalist Louise Milligan’s spin on the issue may contain some interesting lessons for them, too. If there is one person to blame for the 404 days that Cardinal George Pell spent in jail, it is Louise Milligan. She...