Religion News Australia 2009 - 22 (June 7 - 14)
(14 June 09)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Australia
June 7 - 14, 2009
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
abuse / anglican church / arts & entertainment / catholic church / education / international stories / islam / judaism / politics / religion & society / other
Priest jailed for molesting altar boy (The Age, Melbourne)
June 10 - A pedophile priest who claimed he was giving an altar boy an anatomy lesson when he sexually molested him has been jailed for more than two years.
Lambasting for pedophile priest (The Age, Melbourne)
June 11 - A JUDGE who jailed an elderly former Victorian priest for sex offences against a boy 41 years ago has damned the repeat pedophile offender for his lack of true remorse.
Drop the comic altar ego, clergy told (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 9 - LAUGHTER may be the best medicine, but God is no joke, according to an Anglican bishop who has chided Christian church leaders who think of themselves as stand-up comedians and resort to making jokes during sermons.
Millions wiped out by church gambles (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 10 - THE world's richest and largest Anglican diocese has lost more than $100 million on the sharemarket and is investigating ways to cut programs and ministries across Sydney.
Also: Anglicans lose $100m in market slump (ABC News)
June 10 - Australia's largest and wealthiest Anglican Diocese, Sydney, has been rocked by the global financial crisis, losing more than $100 million on the sharemarket.
Russell brand mocks Taliban in new film (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)
June 9 - SEX maniac Russell Brand might come to regret sending up Muslim fundamentalists.
Rare spirit of compassion (The Age, Melbourne)
June 6 - SOMETIMES big stories are best told through the struggles of individuals.
Supporters mass for de-frocked St Mary's priest (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
June 8 - ABOUT 1200 St Mary's-in-Exile community members turned out for services at the weekend to upport rebel Catholic priest Peter Kennedy.
Bishop O'Kelly prepares for official installation (ABC News)
June 9 - The 11th Bishop of Port Pirie will be officially installed at a ceremony at Saint Mark's Cathedral on Wednesday.
Catholic bishop Toohey resigns (ABC News)
June 10 - The Roman Catholic Bishop of the Wilcannia-Forbes region, Christopher Toohey, has resigned because of ill-health.
Also: Mystery as bishop quits rural diocese (The Australian)
June 10 - MYSTERY surrounds the sudden departure of the Catholic bishop of a western NSW diocese who resigned unexpectedly just after Easter.
Quest for acceptance (The Australian)
June 10 - This is clearly no "breeding ground for terrorists". In fact the only signs of religious orientation are the female students in hijabs, and Koranic sayings adorning the walls…
Abuse
Thousands march in Dublin for child abuse victims (The Age, Melbourne)
June 11 - Thousands marched through central Dublin Wednesday to protest the decades-long abuse of children in Catholic church-run institutions, as Irish bishops apologised anew for the "heinous crimes."
Buddhism
Aglow in Buddha's embrace (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 7 – (Travel) As Burma slowly opens up to the world, its spectacular, sacred monuments are on show.
Catholic Church
Keepers of the faith (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 14 – (Travel) Anna Drummond discovers some of the quirks of the papal city-state during a quest to find a rare manuscript.
Hinduism
Taboo hides India's millions of mentally ill (The Age, Melbourne)
June 10 - For many Indians, their first instinct when symptoms of mental illness begin to manifest themselves in their relatives is to seek a spiritual explanation for the sudden change in behaviour.
Islam
Riyadh goes to the movies - for the first time (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 8 - A few hundred Saudis braved a small band of religious hardliners to take part in an historic event on Saturday night: the first public showing of a commercial film in decades in the Saudi capital.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad abandons rally (The Australian)
June 9 - POLITICAL history was made last night when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, was forced to abandon an election rally because the crowds who gathered to hear him were too vast.
Cleric fires new shots in Iran poll war of words (The Age, Melbourne)
June 11 - DAYS before Iran's presidential election, one of the country's most powerful clerics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has issued an open letter complaining that the country's Supreme Leader has remained silent in the face of "insults, lies and false allegations" by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran's Michelle Obama: Zahra is the country's new political star (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 12 - Rahnavard dons the black chador - a head-to-toe religious covering for women - but sports bright-coloured coats and flowery headscarves underneath, and carries a locally weaved handbag.
Ballot loosens ayatollahs' iron grip in Iran (The Australian)
June 13 - THE ayatollahs must be a bit worried - and the defamation lawyers can't wait to get to court.
Getting it wrong on Islam comes easily (The Australian)
June 14 – (Opinion: Christopher Hitchens) THERE is a fascinating connection between what US President Barack Obama said about headscarves for women in his June 4 speech in Cairo and the argument over the released Guantanamo detainees who have since been found, or found again, in the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida.
Iran's supreme leader backs Ahmadinejad win (ABC News)
June 14 - Iran's hardline leaders have warned that they will crush dissent after opposition supporters protested against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in the presidential election.
Saudis vow to loosen laws on women: HRW (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 14 - Saudi Arabia has pledged to take steps toward removing rules requiring a woman to have a male guardian at all times, saying there is no such legal requirement, a rights organisation said.
Judaism
FBI, police probe deadly US museum shooting (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 12 - The Holocaust Memorial Museum here flew its flags at half-mast Thursday mourning the death of a security guard killed in an attack by an elderly white supremacist who is to be charged with murder.
Israel tacticians want Mahmoud Ahmadinejad win (The Australian)
June 13 - A SENIOR Israeli official said yesterday the consensus among his colleagues in Jerusalem was that a victory for the hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Iranian elections would be in Israel's best interest.
US Politics
Obama and the tactics of truth (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 9 – (Opinion: Gerard Henderson) In 2007 I referred to the United States President as Barack Hussein Obama. This seemed to me to be nothing more than a statement of fact. But no.
Religious Violence
Gunmen kill 10 at mosque in Thailand (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 9 - Thailand's army chief denies claims that security forces are to blame for a bloody attack on a mosque in the country's troubled Muslim-majority south that killed 11 people.
Also: Thai army chief denies forces behind mosque attack (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 9 - Thailand's army chief denied claims that security forces were to blame for a bloody attack on a mosque in the country's troubled Muslim-majority south that killed 11 people.
Also: Militants, not security forces, to blame for mosque attack: army chief (The Australian)
June 9 - THAILAND army chief today denied claims that security forces were to blame for a bloody attack on a mosque in the country's troubled Muslim-majority south that killed 11 people.
Buddhist monk shot dead by suspected militants (ABC News)
June 12 - Suspected Muslim separatist militants have shot dead an elderly Buddhist monk and seriously wounded another as they collected morning alms in Thailand's restless south, police said.
Suicide blasts in Pakistan kill six (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 12 - At least six people including a prominent anti-Taliban cleric were killed and more than 90 wounded in suicide bombings at mosques in two Pakistani cities Friday, police said.
Sunni MP among five slain in Baghdad mosque attack (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
June 12 - A TEENAGE gunman went on the rampage in a Baghdad mosque today, killing five people including a Sunni Muslim MP in a grenade and gun attack, officials and witnesses said.
Thousands mourn slain Pakistan cleric (ABC News)
June 14 - Thousands of mourners have gathered in the Pakistani city of Lahore for the funeral of a moderate cleric who was assassinated in a Taliban suicide attack.
Pakistan vows to fight Taliban 'until the end' (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 14 - President Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday that Pakistan was battling for its "sovereignty" a day after scores of people were killed amid an escalating offensive against the Taliban.
Other
Visitors flock to oil-streaked icon (The West Australian, Perth)
June 10 - Christians have been flocking to this dusty Israeli town to see what locals are calling a miracle: streaks of what looks like oil mysteriously dripping down an icon of St George at a Greek Orthodox church named for the legendary third century dragon slayer.
Aztec tomb may be find of generation (The Australian)
June 12 - MEXICO CITY: Archeologists working amid the smog and din of Mexico City may be on the verge of unlocking an extraordinary time capsule.
Five guilty over curse-lifting death (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 13 - A New Zealand jury has convicted the "papa" of the Rawiri whanau and four of his sisters of the manslaughter of their niece Janet Moses in a makutu curse-lifting ritual.
Cultural foes of a similar thread (The Australian)
June 8 – (Opinion: David Burchell) Ever since the Quranic Society lodged an application with Camden Council in 2007 to build a 1200-student school complex here, this muddy, forlorn intersection of Burragorang and Cawdor roads has become the site of the latest instalment in our interminable national dispute over multiculturalism.
Terror accused found Islam after 'living Bondi life' (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 9 - A man accused of plotting a terrorist attack says he gave up a Bondi lifestyle of drink and drugs to return to Islam.
Also: Terror accused Abdul Rakib Hasan faked name (The Australian)
June 12 - In his third day in the witness box in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Mr Hasan, 39, denied he had opened or read more than 200 religious and Islamic documents, including the Terrorist Handbook and the White Resistance Manual, that were found on his computer.
Facebook unplugs racial hate group (ABC News)
June 12 - Facebook has done away with a Muslim-bashing group that had been set up on the popular social networking service.
NAB to trial interest free Muslim loans (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
June 14 - ONE of Australia's major banks is planning to introduce "Muslim-friendly" loans that do not charge interest to comply with sharia law.
X-mensch marks the spotter (The Age, Melbourne)
June 11 – (Opinion: Danny Katz) Semite-spotting is a very popular pastime practised by Jewish people around the world: it involves the collecting and collating of Jewish celebrity names, then spouting off those names at any Semite-spotting-spouting opportunity.
Holy cow! Taxpayers hit with $3m Vatican office (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
June 9 - TAXPAYERS will fork out a massive $372,000 a year to rent a flat and office space in Rome for the new ambassador to the Vatican, former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, even though there is a modern Australian embassy just 5km away.
Also: More than a Roman holiday (The Australian)
June 13 – (Opinion: Angela Shanahan) The appointment by the Labor government of the boy from Boree Creek as Australia's first ambassador exclusively to the Holy See may have been a cause of surprise to some, and even outrage to a few virulent secularists...
Align those chakras, heal that soul, set that wallet free! (The Age, Melbourne)
June 10 - IF YOU were wondering where all the menopausal women were on Friday, the answer is they were at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival, wearing purple mohair jumpers, drinking cappuccinos, eating dhal and buying nasal cleansing pots.
No diocese spared in share market rout (The Australian)
June 11 - THE Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney Anglican dioceses have all been burnt by playing the stockmarket.
Defence courts ethnic groups (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 13 - SOLDIERS could have greater access to halal meals, regular prayer times and more flexible rules for wearing turbans and culturally specific clothing under a plan to boost the recruitment of troops from ethnic groups.
Taking on the cults (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)
June 14 - Raphael Aron began his academic life at the University of Melbourne in the 1970s studying commerce and commercial law. Today he spends his working life investigating the world of cults and helping shattered families who have lost a loved one to a cult or addiction to reconnect with that person.
Hell's bells net callers (The Australian)
June 9 - WHEN the Australian operator of fast-food franchise Hell's Pizza launched in Queensland a year ago, it didn't want to let its irreverent brand wither on the vine.
Brethren determined to build mega-church (The Age, Melbourne)
June 10 - WEALTHY religious sect the Exclusive Brethren is expected to appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a bid to build its new Melbourne headquarters — including a 2000-seat mega-church — in the north-eastern suburbs.
From the Archive…
Religion News Australia 2009 - 21 (June 1 - 7)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 20 (May 24 - 31)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 19 (May 17 - 24)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 18 (May 10 - 17)
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)
