Australian cardinal says he has ‘full backing’ of pope
Australian cardinal says he has ‘full backing’ of pope
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — One of Pope Francis’ top advisers has told reporters he has the pope’s backing as he prepared to testify for a second day at an Australian inquiry into child abuse.
Australian Cardinal George Pell met with the pope on Monday hours after he gave evidence via videolink from Rome to the Royal Commission in Sydney on Tuesday Australian time.
“I’ve got the full backing of the pope,” Pell told reporters late Monday Rome time as he arrived at a Rome hotel to resume his testimony.
The Vatican said the private audience was a long-scheduled appointment related to Pell’s duties as Holy See finance minister, and had nothing to do with the abuse hearings.
Australia’s most senior Catholic later told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday that he had not known notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale had abused children in the Australian country town of Inglewood in the 1970s until the former parish priest was convicted of those offenses in 1993.
Justice Thomas asks questions in court, 1st time in 10 years
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Clarence Thomas broke 10 years of courtroom silence Monday and posed questions during a Supreme Court oral argument, provoking gasps from the audience.
And it wasn’t just one question; it was a string of them in an exchange that lasted several minutes.
It was only the second week the court has heard arguments since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Thomas’ friend and fellow conservative, whom he’d sat next to for seven years. Scalia was famous for aggressive and sometimes combative questions from the bench. His chair is now draped in black in observance of his Feb. 13 death.
Thomas’ gravelly voice unexpectedly filled the courtroom and enlivened an otherwise sleepy argument about gun rights. He peppered Justice Department lawyer Ilana Eisenstein, who was trying to wind up her argument, with 10 or so questions that seemed to be a vigorous defense of the constitutional right to own a gun.
“Ms. Eisenstein, one question,” Thomas said. “This is a misdemeanor violation. It suspends a constitutional right. Can you give me another area where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?”
KKK leader: Request for police security denied before rally
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Ku Klux Klan leader who was injured when his small group of demonstrators brawled with counter-protesters in a Southern California park this weekend said Monday that he called police beforehand asking for security and was told, “We don’t do that.”
Will Quigg said in an interview with The Associated Press that he contacted the Anaheim Police Department but that the agency denied his requests for a police presence. The KKK then told officers that the group would hire an outside security company.
“They said, ‘No, you can’t do that either,’” Quigg said.
The Police Department is facing scrutiny for its response after three people were stabbed and several others were injured in the melee Saturday involving several dozen people and spanning a city block. Investigators determined that Klan members acted in self-defense after the counter-protesters attacked.
The department notified the public that the KKK planned to hold a protest at a park about 3 miles from Disneyland, but at least one witness said he saw no uniformed officers when the attack began.