The Vatican’s third most powerful official has been convicted in Australia on all charges he sexually abused two choir boys there in the late ’90s, according to two sources with knowledge of the case.

A unanimous jury returned its verdict for Cardinal George Pell (Australian time) after more than three days of deliberations, the sources said, in a trial conducted under a gag order by the judge that prevented any details of the trial being made public.

Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief and the highest Vatican official to ever go on trial for sex abuse, left Rome in June 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne.

As that trial was about to get underway in June, a judge placed a suppression order on all press coverage in Australia, according to the order reviewed by The Daily Beast. Prosecutors applied for the order and it was granted to “prevent a real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice.” That order remains in place in Australia.

That trial, known as “the cathedral trial,” was declared a mistrial earlier this year after a hung jury, the sources say. A retrial began immediately and ended with the unanimous verdict.

In a book published last year, journalist Louise Milligan reportedly wrote that Pell was accused by two former choir boys of sexual abuse while he was archbishop of Melbourne in the ’90s. The boys sang in the choir at St Patrick’s cathedral and were allegedly abused by Pell in a room in the confines of the church. Pell’s office told The Guardian in 2017 he “repeats his vehement and consistent denials of any and all such accusations.”

Jakarta’s former governor, known as “Ahok,” who was sentenced last year to two years in jail for blasphemy against Islam, is to be released from prison next month, four months ahead of schedule.

The ethnic Chinese Christian, whose real name is Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, was due to be released in May but has been granted early release, scheduled for 24 January, for good behaviour, according to Sri Puguh Budi Utami, Director General for Prison Affairs, as reported by AsiaNews.

Ahok had refused parole in July as he hoped for early release after serving almost two-thirds of his sentence.

Ahok, the first Christian and ethnic Chinese to govern Indonesia’s capital since the 1960s, was charged with blasphemy in December 2016 after accusing his political opponents of using Quranic verses to dissuade Muslims from voting for him in his bid for re-election as Jakarta governor.

Shakespeare has been considered a political for centuries – apart from the concessions he made to appease his patrons – but a new school of thought claims the Elizabethan play wright was a covert Catholic sympathizer who sprinkled clues about his religious beliefs throughout his early sonnets.

Clare Asquith, the Countess of Oxford and Asquith, has interpreted the bard’s epic poem The Rape of Lucrece as a political manifesto assailing the persecution of Catholics in England, Britain’s The Telegraph reports.

Written in 1594, the poem ostensibly concerns the rape of a noble-woman but Lady Asquith sees hidden messages buried between the lines.

She interprets its coded messages as referring to the destruction of Catholic monasteries and the handing over of Church property to rich land-owners at the bequest of the Protestants.

In her eyes, the poem is an extended account of the Act of Supremacy of 1534, which was passed after Henry VIII founded the Church of England, the media reports.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel, having just formed her fourth government, has established herself as one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders. But she enters her new term of office in a weakened position, and speculation has been turning to her possible successors.

In last year’s general election Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) polled the lowest share of the vote in its history, and has remained in power only because its rivals are even weaker and unable to form a majority. Merkel has also come under fire from party colleagues for giving away too much ground on core policies during the months-long coalition talks with the minority Social Democrats (SPD).

At a ceremony on Alexander Solzhenitsyn Street in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new monument of Solzhenitsyn on the 100th anniversary of the writer’s birth on 11 December 2018. The bronze monument sitting on a granite pedestal was designed by National Artist of Russia Andrei Kovalchuk. His project won the architecture and sculpture tender held in 2017 by the Union of Moscow Architects at the initiative of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russian Expatriate Community, with the support of the Ministry of Culture. President of Russia Vladimir Putin said.

He clearly delineated the true, genuine, people’s Russia and the totalitarian system, which brought suffering and severe trials to millions of people. But even being in exile, Solzhenitsyn would not tolerate anyone to speak evil or scornfully of his homeland, and opposed any manifestations of Russophobia.

A man of integrity, an exceptionally principled person, Solzhenitsyn never wanted to be comfortable. In his writings, in his literary, journalistic and social activity, he openly and consistently defended his views and convictions, and argued the unconditional value of the morals that provide for a healthy society.

Without understanding the country’s past there can be no meaningful movement into the future, Solzhenitsyn believed. Therefore, he directed his efforts toward finding and designating ways to improve Russia, so that the hardest and most dramatic trials that befell our country would never happen again, so that our multi-ethnic people would live in dignity and justice. This is how he saw his mission, his goals and the meaning of his service.”

The bishop must be an ‘administrator of God,’ not of goods, of power, “humble, meek, servant, not prince.” Only in this way can we put order in the Church which “ has never been born perfectly in order,” Pope Francis said at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, inspired by the passage from Paul’s letter to Titus.

Fervor and disorder are the two words used by Francis to recount how the Church was born, also remembering the “admirable things” accomplished. “There is always confusion – he said – the power of the Spirit, chaos, yet we must not be afraid,” because in reality “it is a beautiful sign.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio assures us that “the Church was never born all organized, all in place, without problems, without confusion, never. She was always born that way.” And the confusion, “this disorder, must be fixed. It’s true, because things must be put in order; let’s think, for example, of the first Council of Jerusalem: there was the struggle between the Judaizing and the non-Judaizing… Let’s think about it well: they do the Council and fix things.”

For this reason – continued the Pope – Paul left Titus in Crete to put things in order, reminding him that “faith comes first.” At the same time, he provides some criteria and instructions on the figure of the bishop “as administrator of God.” “The definition he gives is “administrator of God,” not of goods, of power, of lobbies, no: of God. He always has to correct himself and ask himself, “Am I an administrator of God or am I a business-man?” The bishop is the administrator of God. So he is called to be ”blameless: this is the same word that God asked Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless.” It is the founding word of a leader.”

As the rich get richer, the increasing misery and cries of the poor are ignored every day, Pope Francis said. Christians cannot stand with arms “folded in indifference” or thrown up in the air in helpless resignation, he said in his homily on Nov. 18, the World Day of the Poor.

“As believers, we must stretch out our hands as Jesus does with us,” freely and lovingly offering help to the poor and all those in need, the Pope said at the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica. About 6,000 poor people attended the Mass as special guests; they were joined by volunteers and others who assist disadvantaged communities.

After the Mass and Angelus, the Pope joined some 1,500 poor people in the Vatican’s audience hall for a multi-course lunch. Many parishes, schools and volunteer groups across Rome also offered a number of services and meals for the poor that day.

God always hears the cries of those in need, the Pope said in his homily at the Mass, but what about us? “Do we have eyes to see, ears to hear, hands outstretched to offer help?”

May people hear the cry of the abandoned elderly, those who lack any support, refugees and “entire peoples deprived even of the great natural resources at their disposal,” he said.

Pope Francis is convinced that the scourge of abuse is a problem that does not pertain just to a single country.

Pope Francis’ crunch summit on child protection in February is poised to open a new chapter in the Church’s response to the clerical sexual abuse scandal, ending what has been a haphazard and inconsistent approach to child protection.

The Vatican on November 23 released details about the unprecedented 21-24 February 2019 global gathering of bishops underlining Francis’ desire for a collective, centralised and coordinated response to preventing abuse in the Church.

The Pope has asked clerical sex abuse victims and his child protection commission to help prepare for the meeting which will be attended by 180 participants, the vast majority of these presidents of bishops conferences from across the world.

On the organising committee, two of the most credible Church anti-abuse experts have been appointed. These include the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, a longtime Church prosecutor who is now the Pope’s point man in handling abuse cases, and Fr Hans Zollner, the Jesuit priest who runs the Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

“The evening of August 21, 2014 I was relaxing with my two children–Zachariah (5) and Jonathan (18 months), in front of our house in Baga, Borno State. I was pregnant at the time. We suddenly heard gunshots and explosions.

“We all knew immediately that it was Boko Haram, and ran in different directions. They killed people, burned houses and churches. In no time, they surrounded us and kept us hostage for three weeks.

“We were later moved to Chad and eventually, Sambisa, back in Nigeria. They picked wives from among us. Those who refused marriage were killed and their children enslaved.

“I refused to convert to Islam but they still named me Maryam. When I refused, marriage, they picked up Jonathan and flung him into a river. He soon drowned, screaming and crying, ‘mama.’ I helplessly, watched him die.

“I was told I would be married to someone who could impregnate me to replace my dead son. If I didn’t want that, then I would work as a sex slave or they would kill my remaining child. I became a sex slave.

“Daily, for almost two years, I was with more than one man. I was scared of being infected. Many times, I felt like ripping my skin off whenever they called on me. I was flogged, beaten, imprisoned with no food or water.

“I had a miscarriage in the process but got pregnant afterwards and gave birth to a son they named Ibrahim. It was very difficult to love this child. His father is Boko Haram, but he is still my son.

“I worried a lot about my husband. I wondered how I would face him if we eventually reunited. I wondered how I would cope with this current situation which had become a part of life’s story.

“I hadn’t seen or heard any news about him as we had gone in separate directions during the attack.

“One fateful day, soldiers attacked the camp and many of us escaped during the chaos. Another group of soldiers brought us to Maiduguri. As we journeyed, I felt like flinging the baby out of the truck. But it seemed like the soldiers anticipated my thoughts and began counselling me against it.

“While I was struggling with this reality of having a Boko Haram baby, I was also worried about how my husband would accept that I was a sex slave while in captivity and had also come back with a child fathered by one of the insurgents. “They asked me if I had anyone in Maiduguri and I told them I had the Catholic Church. That’s how they brought me to St Patrick’s Cathedral.