A law firm clerk accidentally selected the wrong file from a dropdown menu on an online portal, resulting in the irrevocable divorce of the wrong couple. The couple intended to divorce, but we were still arranging financial agreements for their separation when a clerk accidentally selected them for a final divorce order on an online portal, which saw them legally divorced in just 21 minutes. The law firm realized the mistake two days after it had occurred, but when it asked a high court to rescind the final divorce order, the request was denied. The firm insisted that its employee had accident ..read more

Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders, 74, is facing two fresh indecent assault charges relating to incidents that allegedly happened eight years ago. These new charges add to his existing legal battle comprising 26 charges, including sexual penetration without consent, indecent dealing with a child, and unlawful and indecent assault. WA Police confirmed the 74-year-old, unnamed but confirmed by ABC as the former Broome Bishop, faces two charges of indecent and unlawful assault. Allegedly, in 2016 he sexually assaulted a man aged 21 or 22, marking the emergence of two complainants. The ..read more

One of Australia's newest citizens is the auxiliary bishop of Sydney. He's a New Zealander, born and bred. But Bishop Richard Umbers has become incrementally Australian over the 33 years he's been residing in the land across the Tasman. He says he swapped Marmite for Vegemite a long time ago. He won't say if he's an All Blacks or a Wallabies supporter ... he has a boot in both camps. ANZAC, you might say. Important differences in taste and sport regardless, he was granted Australian citizenship at a ceremony at the Leichhardt Town Hall a fortnight ago. Becoming an Aussie "Today is the end of a ..read more

After much debate, prayer and waiting, the site for the new Christchurch Catholic Cathedral has been announced. On Sunday, Christchurch diocese's Catholic bishop, Michael Gielen, announced the decision to use the Barbados Street site. It will be on the same site which the beautiful Petrie-designed Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament occupied until the 2011 earthquake destroyed it. Constructed in 1905, the cathedral was demolished in 2020. Catholic Cathedral College land and unused church-owned sites adjoin the Barbados Street property. Although ultimately his decision, Gielen said in a letter r ..read more

Leading pro-life Catholic doctor Dermot Kearney was ‘overwhelmed' when he received a prestigious award for his pro-life work. Dr Dermot Kearney received the Anton Neuwirth Prize for the Protection of Life award in Slovakia ‘for providing medical care and for testifying to his courage in helping women avert pharmacological abortion.' A regular contributor to the Universe, Dr Dermot has given many women abortion reversal pills to help them continue with their pregnancies and frequently speaks out against telemedicine abortions in articles and at rallies. The ceremony for the Anton Neuwirth Prize ..read more

Father Massimo Fusarelli, leader of the worldwide Franciscan order, has appealed to his fellow Franciscans to stay put in the Holy Land despite rising tensions and threats to physical safety due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Speaking in an April 18 interview with the Franciscan-run Custodia magazine, Fusarelli said after a recent visit to the region that the members of the Franciscan order living in the Holy Land were "better than I thought," despite the current circumstances. He said his first words to friars living in the region were, "Please, brothers, stay ..read more

Each year the eve of Anzac Day is given over to the International Day of Multiculturalism and Diplomacy for Peace. This year the conjunction is particularly apposite at a time when the air is full of wars and rumours of war. Wars - past, present and future Anzac Day recalls the generosity and death of those who fought in a military campaign of the past, draws our attention to those dying in current wars, and asks where we should stand on future wars. The bringing together of past and present wars is important. It encourages us to take a realistic view of the war in which the landing on Gallipo ..read more

The nature of power and how the abuse of power has been dealt with in the past and present were the focus of an international conference in Rome attended by about a dozen scholars earlier this month. Experts in history, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology and education came together at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University April 17-19. They presented talks including: the effects of mass violence waged by colonial powers; the misuse of the memory of the Holocaust; sexual predation in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages; and slave holding by Jesuits in the United States. Jes ..read more

"Without liturgical reform, there is no reform of the Church," Pope Francis said emphatically last February during an address to the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. His remarks came around the 60th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy that was issued during the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). "'Go and prepare the Passover for us' (Lk 22:8): these words of Jesus,'" the pope said in his February address, "express the Lord's desire to have us around the table of his Body and Blood." Significantly ..read more

We have already seen six months of war in Gaza. Now, it seems that Israel is beginning its last phase of conquest, after ordering a million and a half people to take refuge in Rafah, a border town with Egypt. Soon, there may be almost no one left in the rest of Gaza. There have been several wars in Gaza, but this time there are thousands of human victims, and ruins like never before, and peace does not seem to be near. More than suffering, more than the loss of men and women, children and babies, humanity is lost. Making war Why this new war? The immediate cause is the horrific Hamas attack on ..read more