Religion News Australia 2010 - 19 (May 16

Religion News Australia 2010 - 19 (May 16 - 23)

(22 May 10)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

May 16 - 23, 2010

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

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

ABUSE

Priests kept working despite investigations (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 17 - The Catholic Church is accused of bungling sex abuse inquiries, with at least two priests continuing to work despite church investigations into the cases.

Also: Church failed to act against abusers (ABC News)

May 17 - The Catholic Church in Australia faces new allegations of failing to act against priests involved in sexual abuse, after an ABC investigation revealed cases in which priests found by the Church to have committed offences continue to conduct church services.

Also: Put rein on sex-abuse priests, church told (The Age, Melbourne)

May 18 - ALLOWING a priest to work at a primary school while facing child sex abuse claims is ''unthinkable'', says the law professor who twice reviewed the Australian Catholic Church's complaints process.

Archbishop's handling of abuse claims challenged (ABC News)

May 18 - The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is coming under increasing pressure to explain what he knew about clerical sexual abuse when he was an office-holder in the NSW diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Also: 'I never covered up abuse', says Archbishop Philip Wilson (The Australian)

May 22 - THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has defended his conduct during the past 35 years in response to allegations aired on ABC TV that he was involved in a "conspiracy of silence" about sexual abuse cases involving fellow clergy in NSW.

Scientology chief's daughter attacks church (ABC News)

May 19 - The daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology in Australia has spoken out against the organisation, describing it as toxic and accusing the church of tearing some families apart.

Also: Church of Scientology rejects neglect claims (ABC News)

May 19 - The Australian Church of Scientology has hit back at claims by the daughter of its president that the organisation created a systematic neglect of children.

Also: Top Scientologist 'covered up sex abuse' (ABC News)

May 20 - A senior figure in the Church of Scientology has been accused of trying to cover up the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Sydney.

Also: Church of Scientology denies abuse cover-up (ABC News)

May 21 - The Church of Scientology is vigorously denying accusations a senior figure in the organisation tried to cover up the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Sydney.

Priests must report abuse confessions: Xenophon (ABC News)

May 19 - The Catholic Church is again being urged to remove the sanctity of the confessional for child abuse cases.

Why the Vatican needs George Pell (ABC News)

May 20 – (Opinion: Scott Stephens) At the height of the Global Financial Crisis, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz likened the attempt by the US government to re-capitalise the banking system without dealing with the subprime mortgages that underpinned - and undermined - it, to a doctor giving a mass blood transfusion to a patient suffering from internal haemorrhaging.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Giggly trio's grisly death tales (The Age, Melbourne)

May 17 - SPRAWLED across a table in the Sisters Hayes' Nicholas Building studio is a sequined canvas of a saint who was skinned alive.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Catholics reach back to church tradition (The Australian)

May 22 - A NEW translation of the mass soon to be celebrated by more than 100 million English-speaking Catholics reaches back to church tradition, replacing the more colloquial and dumbed-down liturgy that was adopted by the Vatican 40 years ago.

Also: Fresh embrace of everlasting salvation (The Australian)

May 22 - After nine years of work, Catholic authorities have rewritten the mass

EDUCATION

Catholic canteens five times cheaper (The Australian)

May 19 - SCHOOL canteens built by the Catholic school system under the $16.2 billion stimulus scheme are up to five times cheaper than those delivered by state governments.

Also: Catholics got 10 times more bang for BER buck (The Australian)

May 21 - A CATHOLIC school has built a commercial-quality tuckshop and toilet block 10 times bigger than the cubby-house canteens public schools have received for the same price.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

Vatican denies responsibility for the silence of its bishops (The Australian)

May 18 - VATICAN CITY: The Vatican last night was to make its most detailed defence yet against claims that it is liable for US bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a 1962 Vatican document did not require them to keep quiet.

Priest accused of running paedophile 'dungeon' (ABC News)

May 22 - A Polish priest living in Brazil has been arrested on charges of paedophilia after turning his home into an "erotic dungeon" where he organised orgies with teenagers, Brazilian media reported.

Support for female circumcision stirs controversy in US (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 22 - WASHINGTON: The review by a prestigious US medical academy of its policy on female genital cutting has triggered a storm of protest from lobbyists, women's groups and feminist bloggers.

Anglican Church

Episcopal Church consecrates lesbian bishop (ABC News)

May 16 - The Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles ordained an openly lesbian bishop on Saturday, a move likely to stoke further tensions between liberals and conservatives in the deeply divided global Anglican Communion.

Buddhism

Dalai Lama tweets to Chinese web users (The Age, Melbourne)

May 21 - The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, held his first Internet chat with Chinese web users Friday, in a wide-ranging dialogue touching on politics and his eventual successor.

I'm a Marxist: Dalai Lama (ABC News)

May 21 - The Dalai Lama says he is a Marxist, yet credits capitalism for bringing new freedoms to the communist country that exiled him - China.

Also: Dalai Lama leaves his Marx on the world's financial capital (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 22 - NEW YORK: The Dalai Lama has declared that he is a Marxist who condemns capitalism as a system whose main goal is ''how to make profit''.

Catholic Church

Thousands back Pope in Vatican rally (ABC News)

May 17 - More than 150,000 pilgrims turned out at the Vatican on Sunday, police said, in a rally of support for Pope Benedict XVI as he battles a paedophile priest scandal.

Islam

Pakistan backlash grows over Internet 'sacrilege' (The Age, Melbourne)

May 20 - Pakistani students took to the streets on Thursday as the backlash grew over "sacrilegious" Internet depictions of the Prophet Mohammed that saw the authorities block Facebook and YouTube.

Also: Pakistan bans YouTube (ABC News)

May 21 - Pakistan has banned video-sharing website YouTube because it carries content that is supposedly un-Islamic.

Also: Pakistan blocks YouTube, Facebook as backlash grows (The Age, Melbourne)

May 21 - Pakistan on Thursday condemned caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared on Facebook, blocking the social networking site and YouTube in a growing backlash over Internet "sacrilege."

Also: Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! cartoon page taken off Facebook (The Australian)

May 22 - A FACEBOOK page considered offensive to Islam that led to a Pakistani ban on the site has been removed, possibly by its creator.

Also: Pakistan blocks 800 web pages (The Age, Melbourne)

May 23 - Pakistan has blocked 800 web pages and URLs to limit access to "blasphemous" material, extending a crackdown that has already banned access to Facebook and YouTube, an official said yesterday.

Judaism

Protesters held as Israel moves graves (The Age, Melbourne)

May 16 - Thirty ultra-Orthodox Jews have been arrested in southern Israel as they protested against the relocation of ancient graves in a move they view as sacrilegious, police say.

Battle of the sexes over Western Wall prayers (ABC News)

May 17 - A group of women want to change a Jewish tradition that prevents them from praying out loud at Jerusalem's Western Wall.

Ancient pagan altar unearthed in Israel (The Australian)

May 21 - ISRAELI archaeologists say workers have uncovered an ancient pagan altar while clearing ground for construction of a hotly disputed hospital emergency room.

Religious Violence

Two arrested after attack on cartoonist's home (ABC News)

May 17 - Police have arrested two suspects after an attempted fire-bomb attack on the home of a Swedish cartoonist, controversial for drawing the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

Other

Evangelicals rewrite Texan curriculum (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 19 - HOUSTON: In a coup likely to shift what millions of American children learn at school, a clutch of Christian evangelicals and social conservatives who have grasped control of the Texas Board of Education are expected to force through a new state curriculum this week.

Malawi gay couple sentenced to 14 years (The Age, Melbourne)

May 21 - A Malawi gay couple has been sentenced to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labour for holding the country's first same-sex wedding, which landed them with a sodomy conviction.

Geneticist creates first artificial life (The Australian)

May 21 - FLAMBOYANT geneticist Craig Venter has delivered on a pledge he made 15 years ago: to create the first artificial life, a cell controlled by DNA built from scratch in the laboratory.

Also: Artificial life warning: how it could get out of control (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 21 - The making of mankind's first synthetic cell is a form of genetic engineering that could open a scientific Pandora's box, some ethicists and scientists warned today.

Also: Italian bishops say first synthetic life cell could be devastating step (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

May 22 - THE creation of the world's first synthetic living cell could be a "devastating" step, senior Roman Catholic bishops have warned.

Evangelist jailed for murdering wife (The Age, Melbourne)

May 22 - An Alabama evangelist who authorities say terrorised his family while preaching at revivals has been sentenced to life plus 51 years in prison after being convicted of killing his wife and storing her body in a home freezer.

First female priest ordained in Italy (The Australian)

May 22 - ITALY'S first woman priest was ordained today at a church in central Rome, a stone's throw from the Vatican, a fierce opponent of women entering the priesthood.

French films on Algeria monks, striptease win Cannes side-prizes (The Age, Melbourne)

May 23 - Two French films, one about Catholic monks threatened by Islamist militants in Algeria, the other featuring US stripteasers, on Saturday picked up side-prizes at the Cannes film festival.

ISLAM

Sheikh to be deported but wife and one child to stay (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 17 - An Iranian sheikh has been given six weeks to leave Australia after the Immigration Minister refused to overrule an adverse security assessment by ASIO that suspects him of "acts of foreign interference".

Also: Deporting sheikh 'would breach human rights' (ABC News)

May 18 - The Federal Government has been accused of ignoring international human rights conventions by deciding to deport a Sydney Muslim Shia cleric.

Also: Deportation of sheikh puts Australia at odds with the UN (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 18 - AUSTRALIA has defied a United Nations request by ordering the deportation an Iranian Muslim cleric on security grounds before the UN assesses the alleged denial of his human rights.

The burqa is a war on women (The Age, Melbourne)

May 21 – (Opinion: Virginia Haussegger) A bizarre form of political correctness is preventing us from an open discussion about what is, in fact, female subjugation.

POLITICS

New Liberal candidate says left has infected church (ABC News)

May 17 - The recently selected Liberal candidate for Eden Monaro, David Gazard, claims the union movement has infiltrated the church.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Churches may house boat people (The Age, Melbourne)

May 19 - THE federal government has turned to churches for help in accommodating asylum seekers as Australia's detention facilities are stretched by the recent surge in arrivals.

Cults thrive on tax-free status: Xenophon (ABC News)

May 21 - Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says religious organisations must face a public benefit test, in light of a weapons find at properties linked to a religious cult.

Also: Young girls 'promised to Agape cult members' (ABC News)

May 21 - A woman has told a media conference her granddaughters, aged eight and six, were promised in marriage to members of the Agape Ministries cult.

Corruption is never harmless, in the Church or state (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 23 – (Opinion: Leslie Cannold) CORRUPTION is the most serious moral scandal of our time.

OTHER

Guns, detonators found in religious sect raids (ABC News)

May 20 - South Australian police say it appears the leaders of a secretive religious sect may have been stockpiling weapons with plans to move to a Pacific island.

Also: Police find explosives in raid on cult (The Age, Melbourne)

May 20 - Members of a doomsday cult in Adelaide were preparing to move overseas and planned to take with them a stockpile of explosives, guns and ammunition, police believe.

Also: Police raid Agape Ministries of God doomsday cult properties (Adelaide Now)

May 21 - POLICE have discovered a fifth shipping container believed to be packed with ammunition and supplies for members of a doomsday cult.

Also: Cult members 'hoodwinked' into selling property (ABC News)

May 22 - The family of a member of an Adelaide-based cult says people in the sect have been brainwashed into selling assets to prepare for the end of the world.

Also: More ammunition found in shipping container (The Australian)

May 22 - POLICE believe they know where Adelaide doomsday cult leader Rocco Leo and two of his henchmen are hiding.

Pastor convicted of rape to be retried (The Australian)

May 21 - AN assistant pastor convicted of raping one of his congregation has won a retrial.