According to the Age Online newsite, Victorian Police have linked at least 40 suicides to abuse by Catholic clergy, and have called on the State Government to initiate an enquiry into these and other cases where abuse is suspected.

In what the article describes as a "damning assessment" of the Church's response to the abuse issue, Victorian Police allege that Catholic officials have long been aware of the systematic nature of sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy, but have chosen instead to remain silent.  Meanwhile, police investigations have linked dozens of suicides to the issue of abuse.

The revelations are said to increase pressure on Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and Victorian Attorney General Robert Clark to initiate an inquiry into clergy abuse, as recommended by Justice Phillip Cummins in February this year.

The full article can be re

According to the Age Online newsite, Australia's Catholic Cardinal, George Pell, has been forced to issue an apology and clarification for comments about Jewish "inferiority" which he made on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night.  The program, which featured Pell in a debate against militant atheist advocate Richard Dawkins, resulted in concerns being raised by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, after Pell had described the ancient Israelite people as "intellectually inferior" to other civilisations of the time, including the Egyptians and Babylonians.

According to the Age Online, at one point in the program, Pell was asked whether this "inferiority" included Jesus, to which he replied: "Exactly".

The article cites Pell's clarification as claiming that that the Cardinal tried to ''make a point about the unique place of the Jewish people in human history as the first to receive the revelation of the one true God while I was being regularly interrupted and distracted by the chairman'' (presenter Tony Jones).

According to the Uniting Church (Vic/Tas Synod) newsite Crosslight, up to 50 people recognised as legitimate refugees are being detained in Australia because of their alleged status as "security risks".  Persons so assessed (by ASIO) have no right to challenge this assessment, nor are they entitled to know the grounds upon which the assessment is based.

According to the report, Synod Justice and International Mission Director Jim Zirnsak claims that many of these individuals have been in detention for several years, are seperated from their children and families, and are suffering mental health problems as a result.

“It is clearly unjust for a person to face indefinite detention without knowing the reasons and having no right to challenge the assessment,” the report cites Mr Zirnsak as saying.