Melbourne-based news site The Age reports that Australian priest Greg Reynolds received a letter last week from Pope Francis [ http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/church-dumps-rebel-priest-20130920-2u5jp.html ], informing him that he had been excommunicated. The order means Reynolds is officially prohibited from participation in the sacraments and services of the Catholic Church.
The letter, written in Latin, did not give a reason for the decision; however, the Archdiocese of Melbourne -- the district which oversaw the three churches where Reynolds preached -- told the Australian Associated Press that Reynolds had been shut out because he was publicizing his views that women should be ordained as priests [ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/21/vic-priest-excommunicated-over-teachings ]. The Archdiocese also said Reynolds was removed for holding unauthorized communion ceremonies.
His 32 years of official priesthood behind him, Reynolds began operating an informal church in Melbourne [ http://www.inclusive-catholics.com/ ] in 2012. Called the Inclusive Catholics, the organization accepts homosexuality and allows women to help lead services.
Staff Writers The Courier-Mail October 17, 2013 1:39PM
[VIDEO] Bikie gang members could be banned from several industries under a Queensland government crackdown.
A LAWFUL motorcycle rider will ride to Queensland Parliament once he receives 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for "fairness" in the face of tough new bikie laws.
The petition calling on the Queensland government and police to treat motorcyclists with "fairness" has attracted almost 4500 signatures.
The .. Change.org petition , [one of the good kind, open to people world-wide] created by motorcycle writer Mark Hinchliffe last Friday, demands Premier Campbell Newman and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie “refrain from enacting any legislation that discriminates against motorcyclists”.
[have to register links, repeated more than once throughout the article, have been deleted here]
[VIDEO] 'We will destroy you' Qld tells bikies 2:32
Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has detailed the govt's plans to 'destroy' criminal bikie gangs in the state
“The current police campaign of discriminatorily stopping and detaining motorcyclists for the sole reason that the motorcyclist is riding in company with other motorcyclists is a flagrant breach of our legitimate freedom to use the roads lawfully as is the right of every other Queensland road user,” it says.
“We are not what you term 'criminal bikies'. We do not engage in criminal activity.
"Your statements and your government's declared intention to pass obviously discriminatory legislation is an insult to every Queensland motorcyclist.”
Mr Hinchliffe said he would ride to Parliament to deliver the petition once it reached 10,000 signatures.
Lawful rider a casualty of bikie war
{VIDEO] The Queensland government says a new bikies-only 'super jail' will not breach human rights conventions.
Motorcycle riders have reported being "harassed" by police simply for wearing leather vests or riding during the work day, following the introduction of broad new laws declaring 26 bikie clubs "criminal gangs".
Motorcycle Riders Association of Queensland President Chris Mearns said in one instance a rider was stopped on his way to work for interrogation because he was wearing a leather vest with social club patches.
“During that stoppage a statement was made by the police officer, to the effect that anyone wearing a vest was now liable to be stopped and investigated,” said Mr Mearns.
On another occasion a rider was stopped because he was riding a new motorcycle during normal working hours.
“He was asked how he could afford a new motorcycle when he obviously didn’t work,” Mr Mearns said.
“The answer to that question is that he was actually on annual leave and that he was a company manager and had the means to afford a new vehicle.”
Mr Mearns said the incidents were of great concern to the MRAQ and called into question the reliability of statements made by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie.
“On number occasions the AG has stated that ordinary persons will not be affected by the raft of new laws that have been processed through the current parliament, particularly those that are aimed at one section of the motorcycling population,” he said.
“It is abundantly clear to the MRAQ that this is not something that can be guaranteed.
“When the word of the chief legal officer of a jurisdiction cannot be relied upon the whole integrity of the legal system must be at great risk.”
Expert's warning on new laws
Workplaces, sporting associations and even book clubs could be considered criminal organisations under the tough new laws.
Queensland Law Society president Annette Bradfield says the legislation is so broad it could apply to virtually any type of club or organisation.
"It is up to you to prove that that association or club doesn't exist to commit offences,'' Ms Bradfield told ABC radio.
"If you can't do that and you are found guilty of certain offences, such as wounding, then regardless of the sentence imposed by the court a mandatory 15-year term of imprisonment will apply.''
The Queensland parliament on Wednesday passed laws which impose mandatory jail terms for certain offences if they are committed as part of a criminal organisation.
Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported security guards, second-hand car dealers and people who work in gyms could be targeted by the new laws.
In state parliament on Tuesday night, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the three groundbreaking laws that were introduced earlier that day would not be the end of the anti-bikie movement.
"Make no mistake colleagues this is phase one and I fully expect...that in the next two sittings of parliament we will be debating more tough measures as the criminal motorcycle gang members respond to these laws, come up from the ground where they are hidden at the moment," Mr Bleijie said.
He said security, gym and second-hand car industries would be subject to the same requirements for "fit and proper" employees as tattoo parlours are under the latest legislation.
"If there are criminal motorcycle gang members profiteering, promoting, working, associating, a propertier of these other businesses than we will crush them too."
"We are unapologetic in relation to making sure we have the cast thrown as far as possible, the net as wide as possible to catch these individuals and rid them from out streets and if they don't want to be rid from the streets of Queensland than they will end up in a tough jail environment..."
During the debate opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said bikies were already working in restaurants, bars and massage parlours and would just move into other industries.
"I am concerned that the regulation to the tattoo industry will simply encourage outlaw motorcycle gangs to branch out into other industries," she said.
'Caning in schools would sort out bikies' [shit! TeaParty-like stuff is almost mind-boggling]
A Queensland politician has lamented the lack of caning as a disciplinary action in schools, during an off-topic debate in parliament on bikies.
In a off-topic statement during the debate of anti-bikie laws, Burleigh LNP MP Michel Hart said bikies lacked respect for policeman.
Mr Hart recalled how, when he was younger, if you "stepped out of line they'd throw you in a (boxing) ring with someone who was 10 years older than you with a pair of gloves and you learned your lesson pretty quickly."
"Sometimes I think it's a real shame that we can't do those sorts of things anymore," he said.
"I actually lament the fact we don't have caning in our schools anymore but that's probably another subject."
He said bikies were "pumped up on steroids" which "fries your brain."
"Quite clearly they're not thinking, their brains are fried, they're out there causing havoc."
New laws for the outlaws pass
Stringent anti-bikie laws have successfully been rushed through parliament and passed at 2.50am - 12 hours after they were introduced.
Labor supported the three bills which were brought through cognate debate with an amendment closing a loophole identified by opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Originally, the Criminal Law (Criminal Organisation Disruption) Amendment Bill 2013 stated it was illegal for three people who took "part in the affairs of the organisation in any other way" to be together in public.
Under this definition, a lawyer and solicitor attending court with their bikie client would be automatically breaking the law.
"(Or) if three brothers who are members of a organisation go to their dying mother's bedside there is no basis on which to vary the mandatory jail term," she said.
The act was amended to exclude lawyers from the rule.
"These are the iron clad laws that you're going to rush through without scrutiny and already you found a mistake," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"This bill is not the sophisticated response that is required, it's a hastily pulled together response that plays up to populist rhetoric but does little to address the underlying problems of organised crime," she said during the debate.
Premier Campbell Newman said the laws would help the government to "crush these gangs."
"They are the toughest laws in Australia... the unequivocal purpose of these laws is to destroy these criminal organisations."
"(The message is) go and get proper jobs, it's over this evening.... we're going to hunt you relentlessly, the government is not going to stop like the Labor party would of. This is not some flash in the pan or momentary phase we're going to hunt you down."
"So i say this evening take off your colours, get a real job, act like decent law abiding human being and you wont have to go to jail but if you continue to persist as members of criminal gangs with criminal activities creating fear and intimidation across Queensland you will be destroyed and we make no apologies for that."
Legislation introduced to State Parliament yesterday will make it almost impossible for outlaw motorcycle gangs to exist in Queensland with jail terms applying for riding in groups or even wearing club colours to a hotel.
More serious offences such as drug possession, trafficking, dangerous driving or assault will carry additional mandatory sentences of 15-years, plus an extra ten for office-bearers, unless the gang member becomes a police informant.
Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the intention of the laws titled the Vicious Lawless Associations Disestablishment Bill, the Tattoo Parlours Bill and the Criminal Gang Destruction Bill, was to break down the morale of criminal motorcycle gangs.
"The only way that people will not have these tough mandatory sentences applicable to them is if they come up with information that leads to the arrest or prosecution of others within these criminal organisations," said Mr Bleijie.
A senior Hells Angels member is arrested by police. Source: Supplied
The laws not only list 26 groups to be declared criminal organisations but the addresses of their headquarters - which will become off limits to members.
Stepping foot in a clubhouse, working in a tattoo parlour or riding motorcycles with fellow bikies will mean a minimum six-months jail, a three-month licence suspension and the crushing of the members' motorcycles.
Civil libertarians immediately condemned the laws as "beyond belief" but Premier Campbell Newman said they were necessary.
"We are determined to shut these gangs down," said Mr Newman.
"We're determined to take away their motorbikes, their clubhouses, their ill-gotten gains, their drugs and their guns and to make Queensland safe.
"This is just the beginning."
Queensland Council of Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman said the laws made a mockery of the judicial system by dictating sentences to judges.
"They really reduce Supreme Court judges to no more than cardboard cut outs sitting at the bench in a wig," said Mr O'Gorman.
"The mandatory extra terms of imprisonment can amount to an extra 25 years on top of the offence that brings you to court in the first place.
"These laws are not necessary, the current laws are working but these laws reduce judges to a joke."
He said a bikie given 10-years for participating in an "amphetamine bake" could end up serving 35-years jail - the equivalent of the nonparole period given to Max Sica for the murders of the three Singh siblings.
"These laws will not crush criminal motorcycle gangs," Mr O'Gorman said.
"What they will do is increase the risk of violence between bikies and police, because if bikies know they're going to jail for a mandatory 25-years plus they've got every incentive to take on the police."
[hidden: Ross Brand's funeral Bandidos]
Bandidos gang members Source: News Limited
Mr Bleijie said the Criminal Gang Destruction amendment bill gave the Crime and Misconduct Commissioner greater powers to investigate and interrogate gang members.
Under the legislation, members will be charged with contempt if they refuse to give evidence based on a "fear of retribution".
The bill also sets out the criteria for declaring a group a "criminal organisation" - which Mr Bleijie said could also apply to paedophile rings.
Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said Labor would not oppose the new laws. She did, however, oppose the fact the laws were not being examined by the parliamentary committee system before being enacted.
Motorcycle Riders Association of Queensland president Chris Mearns also expressed concerns about the legislation - despite assurances from the Premier law-abiding motorcyclists would not be adversely affected.
"These regressive pieces of legislation should instil horror into all Queenslanders," said Mr Mearns.
"Not because of what they are seeking to do but the way in which they are going about doing it and all with full acknowledgment that they don't care about any collateral damage that they cause and that they are most likely unconstitutional."
- reporting by Robyn Ironside, Sarah Vogler and Rose Brennan
.. personally .. this jackboot approach of persecuting many innocents because it's too hard[?] to go after the lawbreaking guilty, as is done in most every other sphere of society, doesn't exactly have much of a reputable record .. memories of Joh Bjelke-Petersen .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen .. days .. one of the most corrupt administrations in Australian history .. hard-line Christian, Joh's, was one of ..
Catherine Armitage Senior Writer Date December 9, 2013
.. VIDEO .. Royal Commission into child sex abuse response begins The court empties as the barrister for the Catholic church begins his opening address with the gospel.
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them: for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs”.
At these opening words from the Bible, spoken by the Catholic Church’s barrister Peter Gray, SC, the hearing room at the royal commission into child sexual abuse erupted in anguish and anger.
Some cried out: “What an insult”, “What a joke” and “Good Lord”. Some walked out. Outside the room, sobbing and wailing could be heard.
Les Johnson, 72, from Sydney, who grew up in orphanages in the Newcastle and Gosford area in the 1950s is pictured among protesters outside the Royal Commission. Photo: Kate Geraghty
Many, once small children, are now damaged adults because of abuse at the hands of brothers and priests who were meant to be caring for them in Catholic schools and orphanages. They had come to see for themselves what Mr Gray said was a watershed in church and Australian history.
In the church’s first appearances at the commission, Mr Gray acknowledged children had been abused; that the crimes had been covered up; wrongdoers protected and victims disbelieved or treated coldly. He used words and phrases like “indefensible”, “disgraceful”, “deeply ashamed” and “terrible wrongs”.
He promised the church would co-operate fully with the commission and “ensure that nothing is concealed, or covered up, in respect of what church personnel did, or failed to do”.
Eyvette Parr comforts survivor of abuse Trish Charter (right), who was at St Joseph's Orphanage in Goulburn, outside the Royal Commission. Photo: Kate Geraghty
Survivors have heard it all before; many did not live to hear it.
Trish Charter was one who cried out and left the room on Monday. She said she was abused between four and eight years old and had her teeth pulled out at a Goulburn orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy. Her sister Kathleen died of heart failure aged 39, in the 1970s after several mental breakdowns.
“I am here representing her and all the little children. Some of them didn’t even reach their teens because they were so damaged. It was not our fault,” she said.
Barrister Peter Gray. Photo: Jeremy Piper
The commission’s fourth case study, which started on Monday, will examine the Towards Healing process set up by the church to deal with abuse victims’ claims from 1997 onwards. The church has acknowledged that Towards Healing has operated inconsistently, been overly legalistic and, “on one view”, insufficiently transparent and accountable.
Outside the hearing, victims have said the program had worsened their trauma, rather than alleviated it.
Four individual cases are to be examined. The first concerns Joan Isaacs, who was abused by Father Frank Derriman, chaplain of Sacred Heart convent school in Sandgate school when she was a teenager in 1968.
The second tells the story of Jennifer Ingham, who was abused between 16 and early adulthood by a Father Brown in Lismore diocese between 1978 and 1982. Two men to give evidence under the pseudonyms DG and DK were abused by Marist Brothers; DG aged 13 in Queensland and DK as a Marist Brothers college boarder.
Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness said the hearings would be the first inquiries into the Towards Healing program.
Sad litany of decades of institutionalised abuse
* Incomplete church data says 1700 people had participated in Towards Healing by 2013, and had been paid a total of $43 million by church authorities. The highest known individual payment was $850,000.
* Three-quarters of the complaints related to alleged child sexual abuse between 1950 and 1980.
* Sixty per cent of abuse occurred in schools or in orphanages.
* The Christian Brothers had the most complaints of any Catholic order, followed by the Marist Brothers and the De La Salle Brothers.
* Of all the complaints, 43 per cent concerned religious brothers; 21 per cent involved diocesan priests and 14 per cent related to religious priests.
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