Earlier this week, nuns from the missionary group formed a human chain around a digger to prevent the activists from chaining themselves to it.

However, the clash turned physical when an unnamed nun from the Notre Dame Missionary Family sprinted across a muddy field to tackle a protester who appeared to be carrying two plastic pipes.

A video captured the sister rushing a protester.

The look on the protester's face as he was intercepted and thrown down like a sack of potatoes is priceless.

While some hailed the nun a hero for her impressive athleticism, others were stunned.

"I didn't expect that," co-president of the association for the future of the Bourges valley Sylvain Hérenguel told public broadcast channel France 3.

"I expected the nuns to be a little reasonable for the public order"!

The Notre Dame Missionary Family is a traditionalist Catholic religious congregation.

According to The Times, the bishop of Viviers, Jean-Louis Marie Balsa, told the religious community to abandon the project because it was excessively large.

But the nuns ignored the bishop.

France 3 reports the church construction began in 2018 and has been a bone of contention for years.

The climate activists and the Catholic clergy who support the project will meet with local officials on Thursday in an effort to resolve the ongoing dispute.

Meanwhile, the tackling nun is probably at the gym preparing for a repeat performance of her legendary defensive manoeuvre.

And, as for the bishop who ordered the nuns to stop the construction, he better watch out.

Comments posted online include:

• "Nuns are legitimately superheroes."
• "She's having nun of it!"
• Catholic radio host Adrian Fonseca remarked that the "only problem is that more people aren't helping her."
• "Sister of no Mercy."

Sources

• Western Journal
• Fox News
• Metro
• The Times

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They were Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, who strive to "bring about God's will without the use of force or violence."

Quakers refuse to take part in war and preparation for war; and oppose the culture of militarism.

"I was glad to be among this dignified gathering," says Rachel Rose in her opinion piece in the Wanganui Chronicle.

"As I looked at the backs of their white or grey heads, I reflected how these gentle and determined women had doubtless been advocating for peace and social justice for longer than I've been alive."

The Quaker's protest did not get the same media coverage as the one staged in Wellington by Ellie Clayton and Laura Drew from Peace Action Wellington.

They were confronted by 12-year-old Jason Broome-Isa who told them it was appropriate to protest on ANZAC day.

A poll on The AM Show showed two thirds of those who responded (67 percent) agreed with Jason, and believe protesting on Anzac Day is inappropriate.

But Rose says she was saddened to read some rather strident denunciation of the Quakers who had made white poppies available and organised the peace vigil.

"The organisers took great care to not set up their activities in opposition to anyone. Their freedom to express their heartfelt beliefs should be respected."

Only one media organisation pointed out that an extract read out at the the National Commemoration Service by the prime minister Bill English was written Ormond Edward Burton.

Burton was a christian pacifist who was jailed for his beliefs.

The day after the Second World War was declared, Burton condemned it before a crowd outside Parliament.

In her piece Rose acknowledged the gratitude she has for the help the Wanganui Quakers showed her when she was in a time of need.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle
• newshub.co.nz
• facebook.com/rachelrose.writer
• Image: nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle

They were released after being held and interrogated for 90 minutes.

The demonstrators were calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to investigate the unresolved December 2014 killings of four student protesters.

Armed police broke up the demonstration and detained several people, including the seminarians.

"They, carrying weapons, got off their truck and seized all [belongings] such as posters that we brought," Yulianus Freddy Pawika, a Franciscan seminarian, told ucanews.com.

For the people at the protest the police actions indicate a larger problem.

"It shows that those fighting for human rights have become targets of violence committed by the police," said Peneas Lokbere, coordinator of the advocacy group Solidarity for the Victims of Human Rights Violations in Papua, which organized the Oct. 8 protest.

Father Neles Tebay, a priest who coordinates the Papuan Peace Network advocacy group, also questioned the police actions.

"Every peaceful protest is faced with a military approach," he said. "How can it be?"

In September, Bishop John Philip Saklil of Timika decried military and police aggression in Papua.

He highlighted five specific acts of violence, including an Aug. 28 case in which two soldiers were accused of firing on a graduation party in a church, killing two people.

Source

• globalpulsemagazine.com
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: globalpulsemagazine.com

In the provincial capital, Jayapura, 30 people were arrested at a rally against Indonesian rule.

A person who was at the rally, Rosa, says there was a heavy security presence in the city, and as soon as the rally tried to march, the police moved in to break them up.

"Once the demonstrators started to walk or march the police threatened them and said 'if you step forward we will shoot you', so then they had an argument and just in a short time they were arrested, like, they caught them and put them into the police truck."

12 people were reportedly arrested by Indonesian security forces outside a maket in Manokwari on Thursday afternoon for distributing leaflets about a demonstration planned for Friday.

There were 22 protests around the world last Wednesday calling for free and open access to Indonesia's most secretive region.

Since West Papua's annexation in 1963, Indonesia has imposed a media blackout on the contested, resource-rich territory, allowing perpetrators of human rights violations to act with total impunity.

West Papua is one of the world's most isolated conflict spots. For decades, Indonesian security forces have brutally suppressed Papuan pro-independence movements.

The spokesperson for the main journalists' union in New Zealand has criticised the Indonesian blocking of access for international journalists in the West Papua region but says he is even more concerned about the "intimidation" of local Papuan journalists.

Brent Edwards, convenor of the EPMU's Print and Media Industry Council, told Pacific Media Watch the lack of access for international journalists had been a "big concern".

"But as important, if not more important, is the treatment of journalists in West Papua," he said.

"How free are they to go about their business of reporting free from fear of intimidation or government heavy-handedness?"

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• Radio New Zealand
• Pacific Media Centre
• Pacific.Scoop
• Pacific.Scoop
• Image: Humanosphere

Miss Oliver was active in the anti-nuclear movement, advocated for homosexual rights and protested against the Waihopai spy base in the Waihopai Valley, Mr Wood said. She corresponded with people in prison, including two men on death row in the United States, and regularly wrote to politicians. Miss Oliver recently told Mr Wood: "I will not die until justice is done".

In later years, she promoted Maori issues and campaigned for Scott Watson, whom she believed was wrongly convicted of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. Watson was convicted after the pair disappeared in the Marlborough Sounds in January 1998.

Her funeral is being held at St Mary's Catholic Church in, Blenheim, today, Tuesday 22 May at 12.30pm.

Source

• Marlborough Express
• Image: Marlborough Express

The plan has been hatched in the event that the Cathedral attempts to evict the protesters.

Christian activists say that in the absence of support from St Paul's they are duty bound to stand up for peaceful protest.

Tanya Paton, a Christian protester said: "We represent peace, unity and love. A ring of prayer is a wonderful symbol."

As senior Church officials at St Paul's apparently keen to get an injunction to disband the protest, director of the religious think-tank Jonathan Bartley, said the cathedral's handling of the protest had been a "car crash" and predicted more high-profile resignations from the Church of England.

The canon chancellor of St Paul's, Dr Giles Fraser, and the Rev Fraser Dyer, who works as a chaplain at the cathedral, have already stepped down over the decision to pursue legal action to break up the camp.

Banker's report suppressed

It was claimed last night that a highly critical report into the moral standards of bankers has been suppressed by St Paul's amid fears it would inflame tensions over the protest. The report, based on a survey of 500 City workers who were asked if they thought they were worth their salaries and bonuses, was due to be published last Thursday.

But publication of the report, by the St Paul's Institute, has been delayed in apparent acknowledgement that it would give the impression the cathedral was on the side of protesters.

On Saturday afternoon, more than 20 religious figures gathered on the steps of St Paul's to support the occupation, which began two weeks ago.

The bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, has promised to attend St Paul's in an attempt to persuade activists to leave. But protesters say they have no intention of packing up, many reiterating their intention to stay at the cathedral until Christmas and beyond.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: The Guardian