Vatican laws have changed to toughen sexual abuse punishment for perpetrators . . . Oh, and, by the way, women still are not allowed to enter the priesthood

The photo is of the Seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, nuns who survived 13 desert days travelling from San Diego to Tucson in a covered wagon in May of 1880. The women, hired to teach at Archbishop Jean-Baptist Salpoint's school, soon opened schools of their own, as well as St. Mary's Hospital, the first hospital in Arizona. That facility, along with others belonging to the Carondelet Sisters, was recently sold.

On June 1, 2021, the Vatican announced punishments directed at priests and clergy regarding the protection of children from sexual abuse: Pope Francis has changed the Roman Catholic Church laws to explicitly criminalise sexual abuse of children with penalties described at all levels of complicity. . It’s the biggest overhaul of the criminal code for …

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Occupy Homelessness

underpass

OCCUPIED TUCSON CITIZEN Every year, men, women, and children are arrested for performing basic activities that are essential to life. . There is increasing regulation of the streets, subways, parks, and other public places to restrict the activities that can be performed there. Communities are using the criminal law to cleanse their streets of homeless …

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How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists

Three photos set side by side of (left to right) Greg Boertje-Obed, Sister Megan Rice, and Michael Walli.

COMMON DREAMS In just ten months, the United States managed to transform an 82 year-old Catholic nun and two pacifists from non-violent anti-nuclear peace protestors accused of misdemeanor trespassing into federal felons convicted of violent crimes of terrorism.  Now in jail awaiting sentencing for their acts at an Oak Ridge, TN nuclear weapons production facility, …

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Glenn Greenwald on Bradley Manning: Prosecutor Overreach Could Turn All Whistleblowing Into Treason

photo of Glenn Greenwald

DEMOCRACY NOW! As we broadcast from the Freedom to Connect conference, we look at one whistleblower who used the Internet to reveal the horrors of war: U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning. Military prosecutors have decided to bring the maximum charges against Manning after he admitted during a pre-trial hearing last week to the largest leak …

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There Is No Fall: Looking Back and Forward From The Rise of Occupy

Occupy Tucson circa Winter 2011-2012: group of about 30 meeting around a table in the dried up pond at Veinte de Agosto park with onlookers.

HOBODISPATCH.BLOGSPOT.COM Many think the Occupy movement is history as it lacks the high profile it enjoyed in 2011 and early 2012. Whether Occupy returns to its glory days is not the most important question, but rather the fate of the struggle Occupy brilliantly helped raise to a new level. However before looking forward it is …

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