#secularism

Parliaments are still in winter recess, but the week produced something rarer than a bill: a retreat. After weeks of public pressure and court action, Edmund Rice Education Australia — the entity gifted hundreds of millions of dollars in Christian Brothers property for $1 a time — agreed on Friday to compensate abuse survivors "in full", assume liability for current and future claims, and consent to replacing the Christian Brothers as defendant. The order had pleaded poverty; the assets were placed beyond survivors' reach; the survivors sued, and the entity folded. As their lawyers put it, transferring wealth away does not extinguish a legal or moral obligation. Welcome to the 25 July 2026 edition of the NSL Weekend Wrap, your weekly round-up of news and views on Australian #secular issues! #auspol #secularism https://www.nsl.org.au/columns/weekend-wrap-for-25-july-2026/

The Christian Brothers says it's broke and cannot pay the survivors its abuse created. The documents say otherwise. Land titles obtained by the Guardian show it has housed convicted child sex offenders on its own property — including one who preyed on orphans, and one kept in schools for almost thirty years after officials were first warned. Survivors have gone to the Victorian Supreme Court to pursue Edmund Rice Education Australia instead: the entity that took the order's property for a dollar a title and now reports net assets of $2.3 billion. And in the Saturday Paper, Judy Courtin, a lawyer for survivors, who was in the room when the order's lawyers gave her firm one day's notice, traces the architecture back to February 2013, when EREA was incorporated one month after the Royal Commission was announced, its council appointed by the Christian Brothers' own Provincial. Her conclusion is the sentence to remember: if EREA looks, acts, sounds and smells like the Christian Brothers, it is the Christian Brothers, and the Christian Brothers must pay. Welcome to the 11 July 2026 edition of the NSL Weekend Wrap, your weekly round-up of news and views on Australian #secular issues! #auspol #secularism https://www.nsl.org.au/columns/weekend-wrap-for-11-july-2026/

How an 84-year-old Catholic priest's death marks the end of India's secularism Father Stanislaus Lourduswamy — an 83-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist — died in pre-trial custody in Mumbai, India. #India #secularism #Hindu #NarendraModi Source: https://www.christianpost.com/voices/how-an-84-y-o-priests-death-marks-the-end-of-indias-secularism.html #Faith #ChristianNews #Bible