Religion News Australia 2010 - 13 (Apr 4

Religion News Australia 2010 - 13 (Apr 4 - 11)

(10 April 10)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

Apr 4 - 11, 2010

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

abuse / catholic church / education / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society / other

ABUSE

Priest jailed for altar boy assault (ABC News)

Apr 8 - A paedophile Anglican priest has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for sexually abusing an altar boy in the mid-1970s.

NZ pedophile monk set to move to Oz (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 8 - Two monks jailed for New Zealand's most notorious Catholic sex abuse scandal have been released on parole, and one will move to Australia next year.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

'Fanatic' phone calls concern church (ABC News)

Apr 6 - The Catholic Church has distanced itself from a man who calls people claiming to be doing a survey for the church.

EDUCATION

Brethren schools given millions (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 7 - A TINY school campus at Bendigo in Victoria run by the controversial Exclusive Brethren religious sect is receiving $1.2 million in federal funding to upgrade its library despite having just 11 primary students last year.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

No mention of sex abuse during Easter mass (ABC News)

Apr 5 - Pope Benedict has delivered his three-hour Easter Sunday Mass without mentioning the sex abuse crisis shaking the Roman Catholic Church.

Sex abuse spat clouds Irish, British churches (ABC News)

Apr 5 - Catholic and Anglican leaders in Britain and Ireland have used their Easter Sunday sermons to try to heal the wounds from a rift between the churches over the Irish clerical child abuse scandal.

Society will no longer tolerate hypocritical priests abusing power (The Australian)

Apr 6 – (Opinion: Ian Buruma) IN his remarkable apology to the Catholics of Ireland (most of that country's population), the Pope explained why he thought sinful priests were tempted to commit sexual acts with children.

Pope admits Church in 'times of difficulty' (ABC News)

Apr 6 - Pope Benedict has acknowledged that the Roman Catholic Church is in "times of difficulty" but avoided direct comment on sex abuse, as the Vatican faced fresh criticism over a string of scandals.

Catholic Church unfairly attacked: cardinal (ABC News)

Apr 7 - The child sex abuse crimes of individual priests are not the fault of the Roman Catholic Church as a whole, a top Vatican cardinal said overnight, lamenting what he called "unfair attacks".

Pope must grovel and beg for our forgiveness (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 7 – (Opinion: Chris Geraghty) The world is agog at the criminal, self-serving ways the cardinals and bishops of the Catholic Church have protected their organisation and clergy over revelations about paedophilia.

Norwegian Catholic Church shocked as bishop admits abusing boy (Adelaide Now)

Apr 7 - A GERMAN-born former Catholic bishop in Norway, Georg Muller, has admitted sexually abusing a minor 20 years ago, the Norwegian Catholic Church said today.

Accused priest continued work (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 7 - A PRIEST accused of sexually molesting two girls in the United States spent years working for Catholic schools in India despite entreaties from a US bishop that he answer for his crimes, court documents show.

NZ Catholic church investigates abuse (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 8 - New Zealand's Roman Catholic Church says it is investigating five new complaints of sexual abuse of children from at least 20 years ago.

Church abuse hotline flooded with calls (ABC News)

Apr 9 - A German hotline for victims of sexual abuse by clerics was deluged with thousands of calls in the week after the Roman Catholic Church launched the counselling service in a bid to restore trust.

Official says pope in pain over scandals (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 9 - The clerical sex abuse scandal is causing Pope Benedict XVI great pain, the Vatican's number two official says.

Fresh allegations made against Pope (ABC News)

Apr 10 - Pope Benedict is facing new allegations about his handling of cases of child abuse by paedophile priests.

Future pope stalled pedophile case (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 10 - The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a US priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church", according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.

Why did no one call the cops? Princes of church failed royally (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 10 – (Opinion: Mike Carlton) As this latest tsunami of child sexual abuse engulfs the Catholic Church, a question for the Pope: did anyone ever call the cops?

Church can 'regain trust' by working with authorities (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 10 - The Roman Catholic Church must cooperate with criminal justice authorities on child abuse by priests as "the only way to regain trust," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Uruguayan ex-priest avoids justice on rape charges (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 10 - A Catholic priest who fled home to Uruguay and was defrocked after a nun accused him of raping three children in Bolivia has been living with his family for more than a year - with the full knowledge of Uruguayan church officials - despite an Interpol warrant for his arrest.

Vatican 'to issue anti-pedophilia rules' (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 10 - The Vatican is set to issue guidelines on fighting pedophilia as the Roman Catholic Church grapples with snowballing sex abuse scandals, Italian media reported.

Pope might meet more abuse victims (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 11 - AFTER a week of angry counter-attacks by the Catholic Church against its critics over clerical sexual abuse, the Vatican has struck a more conciliatory tone with a statement that raised the possibility that Pope Benedict would again meet victims.

Buddhism

Bad luck fears stop plan for explorer's ashes (ABC News)

Apr 10 - A plan to scatter some of the ashes of explorer Sir Edmund Hillary at the peak of Mount Everest has been called off.

Islam

Continental bid to remove veil in the face of Islamic extremism (The Australian)

Apr 6 - BELGIAN politicians rarely agree on anything, but common ground has been reached on the veil.

Soccer team banned over headscarves (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

Apr 6 - IRAN's girls soccer team has been kicked out of the Youth Olympic Games because FIFA rules prevent players wearing Islamic head scarves.

Islamic finance bodies have trillion-dollar potential - Moody's (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)

Apr 8 - ISLAMIC financial bodies, which adhere to religious proscriptions against interest, have a market potential of at least US$5 trillion ($5.43 trillion), Moody's Investors Service said.

Judaism

Montreal police probe 'Holocaust' soap (ABC News)

Apr 10 - Canadian authorities are testing swastika-engraved soap seized from a Montreal shop to see if, as advertised, it was made from the human remains of Holocaust victims, police said.

US Politics

A colossus who bends presidents' ears (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 10 - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is a spiritual man whose Christian faith is a real refuge for him when the challenges of office become overwhelming, according to one of his spiritual advisers.

St Francis and the boys rewrite the Obama history book (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 11 - There is a squabble over who owns the President's school days.

Religious Violence

Militants attack US mission in Pakistan (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 6 - PESHAWAR: Islamist militants armed with guns and suicide vests targeted the US consulate in Pakistan's north-western capital and unleashed carnage at a political rally, killing 43 people.

US fight Taliban with heavy metal music (The Australian)

Apr 6 - US special forces have a novel weapon in the fight to expel Taliban from a desolate and war-weary farming community in southern Afghanistan - heavy metal music.

Man threatens deadly force to stop abortion (Adelaide Now)

Apr 6 - A TEXAS man faces charges after he filed documents in a US federal court threatening to use deadly force to stop an abortion if the US Supreme Court didn't immediately act to outlaw the practice

Yemeni child bride dies of bleeding after intercourse (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Apr 8 - A 13-year-old Yemeni girl who was forced into marriage died five days after her wedding when she suffered a rupture in her sex organs and hemorrhaging, a local rights organisation said today.

Mob beating upsets secular Indonesians (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 9 - Indonesia is promising a full investigation into the public humiliation, mob beating and possible caning under Islamic law of two people suspected of adultery.

Preacher guilty of murdering wife (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 10 - An Alabama evangelist preacher and former paratrooper has been convicted of murdering his wife and storing her body in a freezer for four years.

Other

Hitler 'plotted to steal Turin shroud' (Adelaide Now)

Apr 7 - NAZI dictator Adolf Hitler hatched a plot to steal the Shroud of Turin but was thwarted by a handful of plucky Benedictine monks, it was reported today.

Holy baptism water contaminated (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 8 - JERUSALEM: It's official - the holy waters of the River Jordan are full of crap.

Study shines light on near-death experiences (ABC News)

Apr 8 - People who have "near-death experiences," such as flashing lights, feelings of peace and joy and divine encounters before they pull back from the brink may simply have raised levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood, a study suggests.

Bingo battle in America's heartland (ABC News)

Apr 9 - A battle over gambling has erupted in the heart of America's Bible belt.

Shroud of Turin tipped to draw two million visitors (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Apr 10 - THE Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, will go on public display in Italy today for the first time in a decade.

Also: Shroud of Turin goes on display for first time in decade (ABC News)

Apr 11 - The city of Turin rolled out the red carpet Saturday as the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, went on public display for the first time in a decade.

Why we tend to trust strangers (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)

Apr 11 - A NEW Canadian study has discovered why we tend to be fair and trusting with strangers we meet: interestingly, the reasons are commercial and religious.

ISLAM

Go-kart hijab tragedy woman was 'the best' (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 9 - The family of a young Sydney mother who died after her hijab became tangled in a go-kart says she was a devoted mother who was always willing to help people.

Hijab ban belongs in the sin bin (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 10 - When soccer's world governing body FIFA banned Muslim headscarves from competition, a shudder went through Sydney's all-female football team, the Lakembaroos.

POLITICS

Faith has its place but let's not overdo it (The Australian)

Apr 5 – (Opinion: Errol Simper) WE suggested here a couple of weeks back that a Four Corners profile of Tony Abbott might have contained a journalistic sub-text that would feed into an amalgam of discussion.

MP Bob Katter wants giant religious statue (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Apr 6 - MAVERICK federal MP Bob Katter wants to put a giant religious monument on top of Queensland's highest mountain.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Crucifixion re-enactment shut down in Geelong (ABC News)

Apr 4 - The organisers of a crucifixion re-enactment in Geelong in Victoria say it was unfairly shut down by police.

Also: Police crucified for pulling plug on passion play (The Australian)

Apr 6 - POLICE in Victoria say they were responding to public distress when they pulled the plug on a re-enactment of the passion of Christ in the Victorian city of Geelong.

Also: Complaint to Simon Overland after re-enactment halted (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

Apr 7 - CHURCH leaders behind a graphic crucifixion re-enactment will go to Victoria's police chief Simon Overland to challenge what they say is unfair treatment of religious demonstrations and double standards.

Children set off on Uluru pilgrimage (ABC News)

Apr 5 - Children from around Australia have begun a four-day pilgrimage to Uluru in Central Australia hoping to develop a greater understanding of remote Indigenous communities.

Atheists win a battle but may lose the war (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 6 – (Opinion: Madeleine Bunting) Religion has been invigorated by those who came to bury God.

Ceremony looks to boost river flows (ABC News)

Apr 7 - The River Country Spirit ceremony is making its way along the Darling and Murray rivers, to dance back the spirit of the river and country.

Good Friday footy push by West Adelaide (ABC News)

Apr 7 – (Sport) The SANFL says it will wait for a formal request before it considers whether to allow football matches on Good Friday.

Pastor slams overcrowding on Christmas Island (The Australian)

Apr 7 - THE detention centre priest flown to Christmas Island by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has slammed conditions at the facility, saying overcrowding is devastating asylum-seekers, locals and the island's crumbling infrastructure.

OTHER

$100,000 left stashed inside Salvation Army store suitcase (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 6 - A shopper who forked out a few dollars for a second-hand suitcase at a Melbourne Salvation Army Store may be unaware there is up to $100,000 stashed in its lining.

Also: Couple to face charges over $100k found in a suitcase (The Australian)

Apr 6 - A COUPLE will be charged on summons with theft by finding for failing to return in excess of $100,000 left in a suitcase they bought from a Salvation Army shop.