Religion News Australia 2010 - 18 (May 9 - 16)

(15 May 10)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

May 9 - 16, 2010

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

anglican church / arts & entertainment / catholic church / education / international stories / islam / judaism / uniting church

ANGLICAN CHURCH

Priest defrocked over sexual misconduct (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 14 - AN ANGLICAN priest has been defrocked after a professional standards board discovered he had engaged in multiple sexual liaisons, including with at least one woman from his parish.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Rating riles Christians (The Age, Melbourne)

May 8 - THE Christian lobby has pushed for Australia's classification laws to be reviewed after controversial Italian film Salo was given the green light.

Also: Banning Salo again would be culturally backward (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 14 – (Opinion: Christopher Hartney) Ah, the faithful are at it again.

Preaching, but with a poisoned pen (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

May 16 – (Review) A NEW book Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is designed to shock and offend.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Qld's first Catholic church turns 160 (The Age, Melbourne)

May 12 - Queensland's first Catholic church, which boasts Mary MacKillop as a former worshipper, is turning 160 years old on Wednesday.

Blessed Mary branded (The Age, Melbourne)

May 15 - TO MANY she personifies purity, goodness and self-sacrifice but, as sainthood beckons, the name Mary MacKillop could also mean big business for those seeking to cash in on her name.

Pell, the author, coy on Vatican post (The Australian)

May 15 - SPECULATION that Cardinal George Pell is in line for a senior Vatican post continues to swirl in and around the Catholic corridors of power - but the man himself is keeping mum.

EDUCATION

'Klan' teacher Graeme Frederick McNeil jailed for murder cover-up (The Australian)

May 14 - A QUEENSLAND teacher who confessed to being a senior Ku Klux Klan official was yesterday jailed for eight years after helping a teenage student to dump the murdered body of his older brother, who had threatened to expose the links to the racist organisation.

Also: 'Reverend' advised at-risk teens (The Australian)

May 14 - HE was regarded as a pillar of the community.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

Pope accepts scandal-plagued bishop's resignation (ABC News)

May 9 - Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of a German bishop who has been accused of sexually abusing minors, the latest in a string of Roman Catholic prelates forced to resign over an abuse scandal.

Church's greatest threat comes from within: Pope (ABC News)

May 12 - The Pope says the greatest threat to the Catholic Church comes from its own sin rather than external persecution.

Crowds cheer beleaguered Pope (The Australian)

May 12 - CHEERING crowds today laid on a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI in Lisbon after he made his strongest condemnation yet of priests' sexual abuse of children.

Pope condemns sex abuse within Church (The Age, Melbourne)

May 12 - Pope Benedict XVI began a four-day visit to Portugal on Tuesday with an unusually strong condemnation of sex abuse within the Catholic Church - although his presence initially failed to attract massive crowds in Lisbon.

Pope says child abuse scandal 'truly terrifying' (The Age, Melbourne)

May 12 - Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday that Roman Catholics must confront the "truly terrifying" problems within the Church in his strongest comments yet on sexual abuse by priests as he began a visit to Portugal.

Also: Pope's words on sex abuse 'meaningless' (The Age, Melbourne)

May 12 - A US support group for victims of predator priests said on Tuesday comments made by Pope Benedict XVI on the sex scandal rocking the Catholic Church were meaningless and a poor substitute for action.

Bravo, Benedict, bravo! On the finally penitent pope (ABC News)

May 14 – (Opinion: Scott Stephens) Yesterday, during a mid-air press conference en route to Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI irreversibly changed the way that Vatican officials and senior church leaders can comment on the sexual abuse scandal that has enveloped the Roman Catholic Church.

Church to pay victims (The Age, Melbourne)

May 15 - A Roman Catholic diocese has agreed to pay more than $US20 million ($A22.33 million) to victims of predator priests and says it will sell some of its real estate to foot the bill.

Anglican Church

UK church 'shuns' lesbian couple (Adelaide Now)

May 16 - A BRITISH lesbian couple claim they were forced out of their church for holding hands during a service.

Catholic Church

Pope to begin Portugal visit with open-air mass (The Age, Melbourne)

May 11 - Pope Benedict XVI begins a four-day trip to Portugal on Tuesday with an open-air mass before an expected 160,000 pilgrims amid lingering questions over the Vatican's handling of paedophile priests.

Catholic school won't admit lesbians' son (The Australian)

May 13 - A ROMAN Catholic school in Massachusetts has withdrawn its acceptance of an eight-year-old boy with lesbian parents, saying their relationship was "in discord" with church teachings, according to one of the boy's mothers.

Pope prepares for giant Fatima mass (The Age, Melbourne)

May 13 - Pope Benedict XVI will hold a giant outdoor mass before hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Fatima on Thursday, after rallying priests to stand firm in their faith in times of difficulty.

Pope recalls John Paul Fatima shooting (The Age, Melbourne)

May 13 - Pope Benedict XVI recalled the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II on Wednesday as he travelled to this Catholic shrine and prayed before a statue holding the bullet that gravely wounded the late pontiff.

Gay marriage 'insidious and dangerous': Pope (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 14 - Pope Benedict XVI criticised gay marriage and abortion as "insidious and dangerous threats to the common good" in a speech at Fatima as Portugal prepares to legalise same-sex unions.

Also: Gay marriage an 'insidious' threat to society: Pope Benedict XVI (The Australian)

May 14 - FATIMA: The Pope has condemned gay marriage and abortion as "among the most insidious and dangerous challenges" to society, as Portugal prepares to legalise same-sex partnerships next week.

Pope celebrates final Portugal mass (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 14 - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass in Portugal's northern city of Porto Friday, wrapping up a four-day visit where huge crowds have shown support for the pontiff as he battles a paedophile priest scandal.

Hinduism

Starving yogi astounds doctors (The Australian)

May 11 - AHMEDABAD: An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation.

Also: Yogi beaten by bear necessities of life without food (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 14 - He says he's been starving for seven decades after being blessed by a goddess when he was eight.

Islam

Bali Nine's Scott Rush circumcised in jail 'for Islam' (Perth Now)

May 11 - BALI Nine death row prisoner Scott Rush has been circumcised in a secret jail ceremony in Bali and has told authorities he is learning about Islam.

Also: Circumcision sparks concern about Rush's mental health (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 12 - THERE are concerns for the mental welfare of the Australian heroin smuggler and death row inmate Scott Rush, who decided to be circumcised in an Islamic prayer room on Friday.

France lays groundwork for veil ban (The Australian)

May 12 - FRANCE'S parliament unanimously passed a resolution overnight reaffirming the nation's values - and specifying that Muslim veils that cover the face are contrary to gender equality.

Also: French parliament condemns Islamic veil (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 12 - The French parliament on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the full-face Islamic veil as an affront to the nation's values, setting the stage for a law banning it.

Influential school bans Indian Muslims from banks jobs (The Australian)

May 14 - A POWERFUL Islamic seminary in northern India has issued a fatwa, or decree, against Muslims working in banks, a spokesman says, deeming it a violation of Islamic law.

Love brings critic of Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali back for more (The Australian)

May 15 - "WHY did you choose this place?" asks Ayaan Hirsi Ali, eyebrows arched in feigned alarm.

Also: An infidel's progress (The Age, Melbourne)

May 16 - AYAAN Hirsi Ali enters an apartment in New York followed by a bodyguard.

In the throes of reform (The Australian)

May 16 - Reza Aslan says Osama bin Laden may be seen one day as Islam's Martin Luther.

Religious Violence

Mohammed cartoonist attacked (The Australian)

May 12 - SWEDISH cartoonist Lars Vilks, who sparked controversy by drawing Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, was attacked overnight while giving a lecture at a university, police said.

ISLAM

Law firm puts on sharia adviser (The Age, Melbourne)

May 10 - A MELBOURNE law firm has hired Australia's first sharia consultant - an imam to advise Muslim clients on how to observe Islamic legal codes alongside Australian law.

Going berko about the burqa (The Age, Melbourne)

May 10 – (Opinion: Dick Gross) There is a financial contagion threatening to sweep Europe but another contagion, just as destructive, is going pan European – Islamophobia.

Also: The burqa's not unAustralian, but banning it sure is (The Age, Melbourne)

May 11 – (Opinion: John Birminham) What is it about the burqa that excites such passions?

Also: Let's face facts, the burqa is an affront to feminism (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 13 – (Opinion: Elizabeth Farrelly) Who knows the difference between ethics and morality? Belgium does, for one.

Also: The West veils plenty when it condemns the burqa (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 16 – (Opinion: Liz Conor) I have a travel tip for young women. There are places where a burqa makes a lot of sense.

World of colour for Muslim fashionistas (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 15 - Mouna Fattouh collects hijabs the way some women collect shoes.

JUDAISM

What's in a name? Enough for an unholy row (The Age, Melbourne)

May 13 - [A]n unpleasant spat in the Victorian Supreme Court has shone a light on the elusive prestige that attaches to the naming rights on a synagogue.

UNITING CHURCH

Priest slams 'crap council' over noisy Sunday roadworks (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

May 14 - IT'S the Lord Mayor versus the Lord on Ann St after council roadworks disrupted a Sunday church service, sparking a bitter dispute between a minister and City Hall.