Religion News Australia 2009 - 18 (May 10 - 17)
(17 May 09)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Australia
May 10 - 17, 2009
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
anglican church / arts & entertainment / catholic church / education / international stories / islam / judaism / politics / religion & society / uniting church / other
Beacon of strength to young, fellow educators and the sick (The Age, Melbourne)
May 15 – (Obituary) TWO events above all others fashioned the life of Jessie Nicholson, who has died in Box Hill Hospital following a stroke, aged 84.
Critique of Israel not anti-Semitism (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 – (Opinion: Miriam Margolyes) SEVEN Jewish Children is a very moving piece by a writer I have worked with before, a very good writer.
High hopes for verve of Steel (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 14 - Now categorically an atheist, [Paula] Steel says religion has been expunged from her life.
Exorcising demons: surprisingly angelic sequel (The Age, Melbourne)
May 14 – (Review) IN WHAT will no doubt register as one of the most pleasant shocks of the movie year, Angels & Demons, the not-very-anticipated sequel to Ron Howard's ludicrously popular religious thriller The Da Vinci Code, not only doesn't suck, it is positively enjoyable. And fun.
Also: Angels & Demons divines the truth (Adelaide Now)
May 14 - FROM Parenthood through to Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard has brought audiences some of the most popular movies of the past 20 years.
Also: Angels & Demons (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 15 – (Review) This clash of science, sects, symbols and secret societies is a non-stop thrill ride.
Also: The second coming (The Australian)
May 17 – (Review) RARELY has a movie been so popular yet so contentious and so pilloried.
Trials and torments (The Age, Melbourne)
May 14 - Arthur Miller's The Crucible encourages you to explore, both within the play and in your own lives, the nature of conflict, the factors and attitudes behind conflict, response to conflict and why people act the way they do.
The Pope must remember that Jesus preached justice for all (The Age, Melbourne)
May 12 – (Opinion: Tariq Ramadan) The church can have a genuine role in resolving the Middle East conflict.
Church ready to punish rebel Qld priest (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 16 - Rebel priest Father Peter Kennedy may soon be dismissed from the priesthood, but he says he will continue to conduct services regardless.
Also: Rebel priest Peter Kennedy faces expulsion (The Australian)
May 16 - REBEL priest Father Peter Kennedy may soon be dismissed from the priesthood, but he says he will continue to conduct services regardless.
Court allows Islamic school (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 15 - ONE of the biggest Islamic schools in Australia will be built in south-western Sydney after Bankstown City Council lost an appeal in the Land and Environment Court.
Parents lose battle to save Coonabarabran high school (ABC News)
May 15 - The Catholic Diocese of Bathurst in western New South Wales will proceed with plans to close Coonabarabran's only catholic high school.
Catholic Church
Spain moves to liberalise abortion law (The Age, Melbourne)
May 15 - Spain's cabinet has approved a bill to liberalise the abortion law, a measure that has angered the Roman Catholic Church and led to mass demonstrations by opponents.
Catholic Church – Pope’s Middle East Tour
Pope makes peace plea in Jordan (ABC News)
May 10 - The Pope has condemned what he called ideological manipulation of religion as he addressed the crowd at Jordan's largest mosque.
Pope urges Jordan's Christians to keep faith (ABC News)
May 10 - Pope Benedict has appealed to Christians in Jordan to be actively engaged in the politics of the region.
Israel demands Pope damns deniers (The Age, Melbourne)
May 10 - THE Israeli Government has demanded that Pope Benedict condemn Catholics who deny the Holocaust, as he began an eight-day tour of the Holy Land billed as an act of reconciliation.
Red carpet but little warmth for pope in Israel (The Age, Melbourne)
May 11 - Israel prepared a red carpet welcome for Pope Benedict XVI on Monday as the pontiff headed to the Jewish state as a "pilgrim" aiming to build inter-faith bridges and plead for Middle East peace.
Pope in appeal to Mid-East Catholics (The Australian)
May 11 - POPE Benedict has started his historic visit to the Middle East with a message for Christians in the troubled region to stay true to their roots.
Pope visits River Jordan baptism site (ABC News)
May 11 - Pope Benedict XVI has travelled to the banks of the River Jordan, where some believe John the Baptist baptised his cousin Jesus, to lay foundation stones for two new Catholic churches.
The site of Jesus Christ's baptism River Jordan now a 'sewage pipe' (The Australian)
May 11 - IF Pope Benedict hoped to immerse himself yesterday in the waters of the River Jordan, where Jesus was said to have been baptised by his cousin John, he will have been disappointed: the river is now such a polluted, denuded shadow of its former self that bathing is prohibited in its sluggish, brown waters.
Pope arrives in Israel for historic visit (ABC News)
May 11 - Pope Benedict has arrived in Israel, becoming only the second pope to make an official visit to the Holy Land.
Pope in Israel insists Holocaust never be forgotten (The Age, Melbourne)
May 11 - Pope Benedict XVI prayed at a Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Monday, denounced anti-Semitism and appealed for Middle East peace based on a two-state deal, on his first Holy Land tour.
Pope builds bridges on Israel visit (ABC News)
May 12 - Pope Benedict has laid a wreath to the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, on the first day of his visit to Israel.
Pope's Israel warning on anti-Semitism (The Age, Melbourne)
May 12 - POPE Benedict denounced anti-Semitism and pleaded for Middle East peace as he began his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Pope visits Jerusalem's holy sites (ABC News)
May 12 - Pope Benedict XVI has visited holy sites in Jerusalem at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of a pilgrimage beset by Jewish disappointment over his remarks on the Holocaust.
Pope was 'never in Hitler Youth' (ABC News)
May 12 - The official Vatican spokesman has said that German-born Pope Benedict was never a member of the Hitler Youth, contradicting quotes from the pontiff that have been aired again during his visit to Israel.
Also: Vatican denies Pope served in Hitler Youth movement (The Australian)
May 13 - THE Vatican has been forced to issue a surprise denial that Pope Benedict XVI ever served in the Hitler Youth movement, as the pontiff's peace mission to the Holy Land sank deeper in controversy and recrimination.
Pope visits Dome of the Rock shrine (The Age, Melbourne)
May 12 - Pope Benedict XVI has toured Muslim and Jewish holy sites at the heart of the Middle East conflict, calling for the faithful to overcome past misunderstandings and praying for Holy Land peace.
Pope tours holy sites in Jerusalem (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday toured Muslim and Jewish holy sites at the heart of the Middle East conflict, calling for the faithful to overcome past misunderstandings and praying for peace.
Israel closes Abbas-sponsored media centre (ABC News)
May 13 - Israel has shut down a Palestinian media centre in Jerusalem and limited entry to Christians from Gaza, as Pope Benedict tours the Holy Land.
Pope visits Bethlehem in occupied West Bank (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 13 - Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to celebrate mass in the traditional birthplace of Jesus, meet refugees and hold talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Pope celebrates mass outside walls of Jerusalem (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass outside of Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday after two days in Israel spent navigating the currents of the region's conflicts and appealing for reconciliation.
Pontiff finds Holy Land path strewn with thorns (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - POPE Benedict XVI will visit a Palestinian refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank today as he continues his tour of the Holy Land.
Pope calls for Palestinian homeland on first visit to West Bank (The Australian)
May 13 - POPE Benedict XVI has called for a Palestinian homeland and urged youths to resist temptation for "terrorism" in his first trip to the occupied West Bank.
Also: Pope calls for Palestinian homeland (The Age, Melbourne)
May 14 - POPE Benedict has used his first visit to the Israeli occupied West Bank to express his solidarity with the Palestinian people and issue an explicit call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel closes Abbas-sponsored media centre (ABC News)
May 13 - Israel has shut down a Palestinian media centre in Jerusalem and limited entry to Christians from Gaza, as Pope Benedict tours the Holy Land.
Pope Benedict blunders spoil what should have been a healing tour (The Australian)
May 15 – (Opinion: John Lyons) GIVEN the sensitivity of a visit by any pope to the Holy Land, Benedict is being badly let down by some of his advisers and speechwriters.
Mixed welcome for Pope in Nazareth (ABC News)
May 15 - Nearly 50,000 people packed an outdoor mass in the Israeli city of Nazareth as Pope Benedict continued his tour of the Holy Land.
Pope wraps up Holy Land pilgrimage (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 15 - Pope Benedict XVI wraps up a Holy Land pilgrimage in which he pleaded with passion for Palestinians, lamenting Israeli policies, and stirred criticism he lacked remorse over the Holocaust.
At the precipice, Pope welcomed by thousands (The Age, Melbourne)
May 15 - TENS of thousands of pilgrims, including Australians, thronged to the beat of drums and tambourines to witness Pope Benedict XVI celebrate his largest Holy Land Mass last night.
Pope urges Mideast two-state solution (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 15 - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday called for a two-state solution to end Middle East conflict and slammed the Holocaust as "brutal extermination" as he concluded his Holy Land trip.
Pope Benedict XVI reaches out for peace in Nazareth (Adelaide Now)
May 15 - POPE Benedict XVI has urged faiths in the Holy Land to reject hatred and live in peace, underscoring the point by holding hands and singing with Muslims and Jews in Jesus's hometown.
Potent messages as Pope ends pilgrimage (ABC News)
May 16 - Pope Benedict made a personal and potent denunciation of the Holocaust on Friday (local time), vowing to Israelis that the brutal extermination of Jews by the "godless" Nazi regime would never be forgotten or denied.
Islam
The Muslim chef, the pork fat and the police (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 12 - A Muslim catering manager in Britain refused to cook sausages and bacon because he feared he would be splashed with pork fat, he told an industrial tribunal on Monday, alleging religious discrimination.
Iran split revealed by freeing of Roxana Saberi (The Australian)
May 13 - THE release on Monday night of an Iranian-American journalist imprisoned in Tehran on charges of spying for the US has revealed deep splits within the leadership of the Islamic state.
American couples on trial in Egypt for adoption (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 17 - An American woman who is being tried with her husband on charges of forgery and child trafficking after they adopted twin orphans said Saturday the trial was part of Egypt's "persecution" against Christians.
Judaism
Washington pushes '57-state solution' for Middle East (The Australian)
May 12 - WASHINGTON is putting the final touches to a hugely ambitious peace plan for the Middle East, aimed at ending more than 60 years of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, according to Jordan's King Abdullah, who is helping to bring the parties together in a "57-state solution".
Also: Israel weighs peace with all Muslims (The Australian)
May 13 - ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to explore the possibility of a comprehensive peace with the entire Muslim world, rather than just a narrow Israeli-Palestinian accord, when he has his first meeting with US President Barack Obama next week in Washington.
Voice of equality (The Age, Melbourne)
May 16 - As a female Palestinian MP in Israel's Knesset, this activist has taken up the battle for rights on two fronts.
Religious Violence
In the footsteps of the Taliban (The Age, Melbourne)
May 12 - ISLAMIC militants who burn schools and threaten women in the name of religious purity. A righteous force battling corrupt and venal officials. Or gun-waving gangsters who conceal their crimes under a banner of spiritual renewal… who exactly the Taliban are often rests in the eye of the beholder.
'Hidden general' to fight al-Qaeda (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 13 - WHEN a super-secret US military "black ops" squad helped engineer an attack on a hut near the Iraqi city of Baqouba in 2006, its commander, a three-star general, went with his men to identify the body of their target: the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Afghan militants 'used phosphorus' (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - THE US has accused Afghan militants of using white phosphorus as a weapon in "reprehensible" attacks on US forces and in civilian areas.
Pakistan claims to have Taliban on the run as 360,000 flee fighting (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - THE Pakistani military says it has the Taliban on the run in the Swat Valley as its onslaught against insurgents in the north-west of the country widens.
Italy charges two men over terror plots (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - Italian authorities charged two French prisoners on Tuesday with membership of an al-Qaeda cell which was allegedly preparing an attack on France's main international airport, police said.
Inside Taliban's graduate school (The Australian)
May 13 - IN the sprawling madrassa compound known as Pakistan's jihadist factory, Syed Yousaf Shah tells The Australian that "as long as there is injustice by the super powers, the madrassas will produce Taliban fighters".
War in paradise is Pakistan's line in the sand (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 16 - After the failure of appeasement, much is at stake in confronting the Taliban.
Car bomb in Pakistan kills 11 (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 17 - A car bomb destroyed an internet cafe and tore through a bus carrying handicapped children in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 11 people and wounding many more, police said.
Other
Madonna set to commit to Jesus Luz in Kabbalah ceremony (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
May 13 - RUMOUR has it that Queen of Pop Madonna is ready to undertake a Kabbalah commitment ceremony with her younger Brazilian lover Jesus Luz.
Cardinal points (The Australian)
May 16 – (Travel) THE dome of the Vatican hovers spectrally above the city of Rome: soaring proclamation that God is in his heaven and his representative on earth is here among us ... possibly inside, having a nice lunch or an afternoon rest between benedictions out of the window.
Tribunal hears recordings of Alan Jones's attack on 'Muslim trash' (The Australian)
May 12 - A TRIBUNAL has heard recordings of top-rating Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones refer to "Muslim trash" live on air before reading a letter that referred to Muslims as "vermin" who "simply rape, pillage and plunder a nation that's taken them in".
Our opportunity in Pakistan (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 13 – (Opinion: Tanveer Ahmed) Pakistan is one of a handful of nations that has attempted to define its identity through religion.
Man charged over anti-semitic videos (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
May 14 - A MAN who allegedly posted anti-semitic videos on the website YouTube has been charged with attempting to incite racial animosity and racial harassment.
Libs give fake documents to SA police (ABC News)
May 12 - South Australia's Opposition Leader says he has referred to police fake documents which he used in Parliament to make false claims against the SA Premier and other Labor Party figures.
Defend to last their right to say it (The Australian)
May 13 – (Opinion: Michael Sexton) Almost everyone would, if asked, say that they were in favour of freedom of speech. But what they often mean is speech that they do not find offensive in any way.
Bringing home the dead so their spirits can rest (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - As archaeologists in a muddy field in France exhume the bodies of 190 Australian World War I diggers for military reburial, two Aboriginal elders have come to London to find and reclaim 600 other Australians who lie alone on the dusty shelves of English universities and museums.
Believe in it or not (The Australian)
May 16 – (Opinion: Jane Fraser) I HAD intended today to talk about God. And you know what, I'm going to, even though I'm sitting here wondering why I would want to take another battering.
Exhibition unites Fiji's diaspora (The Age, Melbourne)
May 13 - UNTIL the 1987 military coup in Fiji, Richmond Uniting Church was a focal point for Fijians living in Victoria.
Puppies may share our moral conscience (The Age, Melbourne)
May 17 - IF YOU subscribe to the theory that humans are superior to other animals because we alone have a moral conscience, you may be barking up the wrong tree.
From the Archive…
Religion News Australia 2009 - 17 (May 1 - 10)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 16 (Apr 26 - 30)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 15 (Apr 19 - 26)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 14 (Apr 5 - 19)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 13 (Mar 29 – Apr 5)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 12 (Mar 22 – 29)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 11 (Mar 15 – 22)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 10 (Mar 8 – 15)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 9 (Mar 1 - 8)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 8 (Feb 22 - 28)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 7 (Feb 15 - 22)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 6 (Feb 8 – 15)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 5 (Feb 1 – 8)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 4 (Jan 18 - 25)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 3 (Jan 11 - 18)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 2 (Jan 4 - 11)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 1 (Dec 28 – Jan 4)
