Religion News Australia 2009 - 50 (Dec 27

Religion News Australia 2009 - 50 (Dec 27 - Jan 2)

(01 January 10)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

Dec 27 – Jan 2, 2009

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

anglican church / catholic church / international stories / politics / religion & society / other

ANGLICAN CHURCH

Samaritans withdraws plans for community centre (ABC News)

Dec 30 - Welfare group Samaritans has withdrawn its application to develop a controversial community centre Islington in Newcastle.

Murray Bishop charged by Church (ABC News)

Dec 31 - The Anglican Church in South Australia will soon convene a special tribunal to consider charges against the Bishop of the Murray, Ross Davies.

Vietnam tested chaplain's ability (Sydney Morning Herald)

Dec 31 – (Obituary) When Howard Dillon served as chaplain to the Australian Task Force in South Vietnam, he saw some dreadfully injured men brought into the First Military Hospital at Vung Tau, including one who had had his leg blown off.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Pyro priest gears up for NYE fireworks (ABC News)

Dec 31 - When the New Year's Eve fireworks go off in Armidale tonight, they will be lit by a clergyman with a penchant for explosive devices.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

Former archbishop gets 8 years for sex abuse (ABC News)

Dec 31 - The former archbishop of Argentina's Santa Fe province has been sentenced to eight years in prison for "aggravated sexual abuse" against a seminarian, a court source said.

Catholic Church

Vatican security scrutinised after Pope attacked (ABC News)

Dec 27 - The Vatican said on Saturday it had not yet decided whether to take legal action against the woman who lunged at Pope Benedict, forcing him to fall at Christmas eve mass.

Also: Pope's attacker likely to avoid charges (ABC News)

Dec 29 - The woman who launched a Christmas Eve attack on Pope Benedict XVI is unlikely to face charges because of her mental state, Italian news agency ANSA said, citing Vatican sources.

Uganda Catholic priests form new church (The Age, Melbourne)

Jan 1 - Twenty renegade Catholic priests who are either married or want to marry have broken from the mainstream Roman Catholic Church here and formed a new church where celibacy is not required, members said.

Cardinal credited with famous John Paul II speech dies (Adelaide Now)

Jan 1 - THE former head of the Catholic church in Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, has died in hospital in Belfast.

Islam

Victorious clerics now cast in Shah's role of national oppressor (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 31 - Observers are wondering whether this is the second Iranian revolution.

Judaism

Berlin's Jewish cemetery gets new lease of life (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 29 - IN THE German language, Jews often call a cemetery ''ein guter Ort'', or "a good place".

Religious Violence

How a boy nicknamed 'the Pope' turned to extremist Islam (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 28 - As a member of a prominent and wealthy Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London.

Also: Al-Qaeda claims accused bomber as his Australian links emerge (Sydney Morning Herald)

Dec 29 - Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the failed bid to blow up a passenger jet over Detroit on Christmas Day as President Barack Obama vowed the US would not rest until the plotters had been brought to justice.

Also: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied at Wollongong uni campus in Dubai (The Australian)

Dec 29 - UMAR Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of attempting to detonate an explosive aboard a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day, spent about 2½ months in Dubai on a student visa, starting in May 2009, according to an official here familiar with the situation.

Also: All politics is local, even for al-Qaeda terrorists (Sydney Morning Herald)

Dec 29 – (Opinion: Jason Burke) The attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight exposes an unresolved tension at the heart of militant Islam.

Also: Plane bomber linked to internet jihad fantasy (ABC News)

Dec 30 - Investigators in the US are trying to verify if hundreds of internet postings were written by the 23-year-old Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a passenger airliner near Detroit on Christmas Day.

Also: Lonely bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's religious angst posted online (The Australian)

Dec 30 - LAGOS: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is believed to have used the internet to overcome loneliness and find "a true Muslim friend".

Also: More airline attacks feared as al-Qaeda claims credit (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 30 - THE search for any accomplices of the Nigerian man charged with attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day has gathered new urgency after al-Qaeda claimed responsibility and authorities were told there might be more bombers trained to attack US flights.

Also: Al-Qa'ida recruited suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in London (The Australian)

Dec 31 - THE Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect organised a conference under the banner "War on Terror Week" as he immersed himself in radical politics while a student in London.

Iranian protest blood spilled on sacred day (The Australian)

Dec 29 - TEHRAN: An Iranian opposition leader last night condemned the killing of protesters during Shia Islam's most important observance, saying the government was even more brutal than the corrupt regime ousted by the Islamic revolution three decades ago.

Suicide bomber kills 30 on holiest Shi'ite day (Sydney Morning Herald)

Dec 29 - A suicide bomber on Monday targeted Pakistan's largest procession of Shi'ite Muslims on their holiest day, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens more in defiance of a major security crackdown.

Also: Pakistani Taliban claim Karachi bombing (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 31 - The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the devastating bombing of a religious procession in Karachi - a sign the militants may be escalating their war against the state with a rare attack in Pakistan's commercial hub.

Boys killed in Islamic sect clash: Red Cross (ABC News)

Dec 30 - The Red Cross in Nigeria says many of the people killed on Monday in clashes between security forces and rival factions of a radical Islamic sect in the northern city of Bauchi were children.

Other

Lotto vultures resort to bird-brained scheme (ABC News)

Dec 28 - The traditional medicinal practice of smoking dried vulture brains to induce a vision of winning lotto numbers is killing off the bird's population in South Africa, researchers say.

Big Love returns with provocative gay story (ABC News)

Dec 29 - Television polygamy drama Big Love returns for a fourth season in January with a gay storyline that is likely to stir up controversy in Mormon circles where homosexual relations are prohibited.

'Vision from God' leads US activist into N Korea (ABC News)

Dec 29 - North Korea's official KCNA news agency says a United States man has crossed into its territory and has been arrested.

Fiji reinstates war dance before matches (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 31 - Fiji will perform the cibi, or war dance, before all future rugby internationals after briefly discarding the pre-match ritual on religious grounds.

Ritual killings feared at animal graveyard (Adelaide Now)

Jan 1 - A GRAVEYARD of nearly 500 dead animals, ranging from white-tailed deer to cobra to monkeys, were found strewn inside and outside of a Philadelphia-area home in what investigators believe is evidence of religious ritual killings.

POLITICS

Whatever happened to secular democracy? (The Australian)

Dec 29 – (Opinion: Ross Fitzgerald) SUDDENLY, religion is making inroads again into Australian politics and our secular society.

Premier Bligh rejects bid for Queensland abortion reform (The Australian)

Dec 29 - A PUSH by doctors and pro-choice activists to have abortion decriminalised in Queensland has been formally refused.

SA Premier labels Mother Mary a rebel (The Age, Melbourne)

Dec 31 - South Australian Premier Mike Rann may be battling allegations of infidelity but it seems that won't be his priority in 2010.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Sure, God has a sense of humour. Shame about some of his followers (Sydney Morning Herald)

Dec 31 - (Opinion: Elizabeth Farrelly) When I was 14, my entire class converted to Jesus freakery.

OTHER

Unusable donations cost Salvos $6m (News.com.au)

Dec 29 - TONNES of unusable donations and rubbish dumped outside Salvation Army stores across Australia over Christmas have left the charity with its biggest multi-million dollar headache.