"First Australian saint is canonized; Pontiff bestows honor on 5 others" by Associated Press / October 18, 2010
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Australia’s first saint yesterday, canonizing a 19th-century nun and also declaring five other saints in an open-air Mass attended by tens of thousands.
Chants of “Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!’’ echoed throughout St. Peter’s Square as a raucous crowd of flag-and-balloon-carrying Australians used a traditional sports cheer to celebrate the honor bestowed on their late native, Mary MacKillop. In Sydney, huge images of the nun were projected onto the sandstone pylons of Sydney Harbor Bridge....
Born in 1842, MacKillop grew up in poverty as the first of eight children of Scottish immigrants. She moved to the sleepy farming town of Penola in southern Australia to become a teacher, inviting the poor and local Aborigines to attend free classes in a six-room stable.
She cofounded her order, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, with the goal of serving the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged, particularly through education.
Saint.
“She supported Aboriginal people because she believed in supporting people who were disadvantaged,’’ said Melissa Brickell, a pilgrim from Melbourne who was in St. Peter’s Square for the ceremony. “She is a friend of Aboriginal people from the early days.’’
As a young nun in 1871, MacKillop and 47 other nuns from her order were briefly dismissed from the Roman Catholic Church in a clash with high clergy.
In addition to bitter rivalries among priests, one of the catalysts for the move was that her order had exposed a pedophile priest.
Sinner!
Five months later, the bishop revoked his ruling from his deathbed, restoring MacKillop to her order and paving the way for her decades of work educating the poor across Australia and New Zealand....
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And where they are now?
Face down on the ground.
A video showing excessive force by police has an Australian leader calling for a review of Taser guidelines. (Associated Press)
"Use of Tasers questioned after police stun man 13 times" by Associated Press | October 6, 2010
Oh, you guys having a problem with that, too?
SYDNEY — A graphic video of an unarmed man being zapped with a Taser 13 times shows an unacceptable misuse of stun guns, police said.
Western Australia State Police said the 2008 case was not typical of Taser use by the force, and state Premier Colin Barnett demanded a review of Taser guidelines.
A day after the video was released, a man died in Sydney after police stunned him in the chest with a Taser.
Sinners!
In the video, an unarmed, dark-skinned man who refused to undergo a strip search in a Perth detention facility is shown screaming in apparent agony after being zapped with a stun gun eight times while surrounded by nine police officers. He was stunned another five times off-camera....
That could be me!
The commission’s report said the previous actions of the man, who was not identified, indicated he was probably suffering from a mental illness and/or was affected by drugs. It did not say why the man was in police custody....
Yeah, BLAME the VICTIM!
The crime commission’s report says Tasers are increasingly being used to force alleged offenders to comply with orders.
Who knew Australia was a fascist state?
The report recommends that stun guns be used only when there is an imminent threat of serious injury....
But it's so easy to just zap 'em!
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