Religion News Australia 2011 - 14 (Mar 27

Religion News Australia 2011 - 14 (Mar 27 - Apr 3)

(02 April 11)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

Mar 27 – Apr 3, 2011

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

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

ABUSE

Ex-brother denies molesting teenager (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 28 - A former Catholic brother accused of molesting a teenager at Bathurst's St Stanislaus college says he never went to the city with the youth, let alone assault him.

Also: Ex-Catholic brother guilty of abusing teen (ABC News)

Mar 31 - A former Catholic brother has been found guilty of molesting a teenager he was counselling at Saint Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

Also: Ex-Catholic brother guilty of sex assault (The West Australian)

Apr 2 - A former Catholic brother has been found guilty of molesting a teenager he was counselling after the youth was sexually assaulted by another man.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Katy Perry's mother horrified by her daughter's risque image (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 29 - Katy Perry's risque stage routines and revealing outfits leave her mother horrified, according to her new tell-all book.

Martyr reborn in book (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

Mar 30 – (Review) A local author uncovers the forgotten story of a remarkable man who was tried and ultimately condemned by the Mexican Inquisition.

In the name of the son (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

Mar 30 - Mega-selling US author Jodi Picoult put herself on the line by addressing gay rights -and then it got personal.

Resurrecting the lost sister (Brisbane Times)

Apr 1 - When Leslie Cannold could find no historical reference to Jesus' sisters, she set about the long, difficult task of creating them in fiction.

Easter gig in sin bin (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

Apr 3 - THE Baillieu Government will move to ban a bad-taste concert being staged on one of the most sacred days of the Christian year.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Bishop's remains to come home (The West Australian)

Mar 31 - A team from the WA Catholic Church has exhumed the remains of the first bishop of Perth, John Brady, from a cemetery in remote southern France.

EDUCATION

Christian schools seek full public funding (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 2 - THE federal government will review a proposal to adopt a controversial school model in which privately run schools operate wholly on public funds.

Katz: the column (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 2 – (Opinion: Danny Katz) THANK God Almighty! This is really good news: I heard the Victorian Education Department has started forcing public primary schools to host non-compulsory Christian education classes during school hours and all I can say is HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD.

Priest slams religion curriculum as 'appalling' (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 3 - THE way Victoria offered religious education was ''not on'', the Christian curriculum was ''crap'' and the education department was ill equipped to stand up to religious ''bullies'', according to Melbourne priest and academic Professor Gary Bouma.

Religious instruction teaches much more than faith (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 3 – (Opinion: Evonne Paddison) Opposition to Christian programs in government schools is misguided.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Catholic Church

Lourdes declares 'cure' but not 'miracle' (ABC News)

Mar 29 - The Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes has announced the "remarkable healing" of a French invalid, avoiding the traditional term "miracle" as doctors increasingly shy away from calling an illness incurable.

Libyan air strikes kill dozens of civilians: Vatican (ABC News)

Apr 1 - At least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes by coalition forces on Tripoli, the top Vatican official in the Libyan capital said.

Vatican prepares new finance rules (news.com.au)

Apr 1 - THE Vatican was scrambling ahead of a Friday deadline to finalise the new rules covering how the Holy See will monitor funds.

Also: Vatican enacts international financial transparency (The West Australian)

Apr 1 - VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican, whose bank has been embroiled in a money-laundering scandal, said on Friday it had adopted laws to comply with international standards on financial crime.

Islam

Saudi prints 1.5 million copies of anti-demo edict (The West Australian)

Mar 29 - JEDDAH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is printing 1.5 million copies of an edict by religious scholars outlawing protests in the conservative kingdom as un-Islamic, the state news agency said on Tuesday.

Muslim brides defy modesty for better or worse (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 3 - Despite resistance from women, the Afghan government plans to stamp out lavish displays of flesh.

Religious Violence

Six dead in Pakisatan suicide bomb attack (news.com.au)

Mar 30 - SIX people were killed and 10 wounded when a suicide bomber riding on a motorbike blew himself up near a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan today, police said.

Iraq, U.S. officials say attack bore signs of Qaeda (The West Australian)

Mar 31 - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bloody siege at a provincial council headquarters in Saddam Hussein's hometown in which 58 people were killed bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda militants, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.

'13 dead' in new attack on Pakistan Islamic party (The West Australian)

Mar 31 - CHARSADDA, Pakistan (AFP) - A suicide bomb blast targeting an Islamic party chief killed at least 13 people in Pakistan Thursday, officials said -- the second attack against him and his supporters in two days.

Seven UN workers killed in Afghanistan (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 2 - Seven foreign UN workers have been killed in Afghanistan by protesters angered by a Koran burning in the US, the provincial governor says, in what appears to be the deadliest attack on the UN there since the 2001 invasion.

Also: Ten die in Afghan Koran demo (Brisbane Times)

Apr 2 - Ten people have died in new protests in Afghanistan against a Koran burning in the US, a day after seven UN staff were killed by a mob in the worst attack on the world body in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

Also: Insurgents die in failed attack on NATO in Afghanistan (Brisbane Times)

Apr 2 - KABUL: Three insurgents have attacked a NATO base on the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital but were killed before they could enter the compound, NATO and Afghan police said yesterday.

Also: Koran-burning pastor calls for holding Islam accountable (The West Australian)

Apr 2 - GAINESVILLE, Florida (AFP) - The US pastor, whose burning of a Koran sparked deadly violence in Afghanistan, has called for "immediate" US and UN action against its perpetrators, saying the whole religion of Islam must be held accountable.

Other

Indian 'fasting to death' custom faces court test (The West Australian)

Mar 28 - NEW DELHI (AFP) - When 80-year-old Indian widow Kanwri Devi Surana suffered a mild heart attack last year, she pledged to fast herself to death in a religious practice known as "santhara".

Bahrain not targeting any religious sect: minister (The West Australian)

Mar 29 - DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain's interior minister said on Tuesday security forces had not targeted any sect after recent unrest, rejecting opposition complaints the Sunni-led state has subjected majority Shi'ites to abuse.

Books found in Jordanian cave… more significant than the Dead Sea Scrolls (news.com.au)

Mar 31 - A mini library of 70 tiny books found stashed in a cave could rewrite Christian history and be a bigger deal than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Pray for calmer driving (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 1 - Poland's Catholic Church will hold a day of prayer for the nation's drivers in an attempt to use the Christian spirit to quell road rage.

The Spanish celebrate Easter with parades (The West Australian)

Apr 1 - As incense and candles burn, trumpets blare and drums beat, penitents covered in colourful tunics and conical hoods march slowly through the night toward the cathedral.

Chile's best face shows in faithful (Adelaide Now)

Apr 2 – (Travel) Men in berets doze alongside homeless men lying across park benches, seemingly oblivious to the preacher pacing up and down, Bible in hand, passionately waving his arms and shouting in Spanish.

ISLAM

Muslim bid to co-exist with West (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Mar 29 – (Opinion: Halim Rane) IN the aftermath of European colonial rule, many Islamists encouraged the Muslim masses to reject all things Western, including democracy and modern standards of human rights.

JUDAISM

Judge on Rodney Adler's side in synagogue naming row (The Age, Melbourne)

Apr 1 - A STOUSH over naming rights at a Melbourne synagogue has been settled in court, with businessman and former jailbird Rodney Adler emerging as the winner.

POLITICS

Not in my church, says the priest (Brisbane Times)

Apr 2 - IT WOULD seem easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the Greens to get through the gates of St Catherine's Catholic Church, Gymea.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

How I lost faith in multiculturalism (The Australian)

Apr 2 – (Opinion: Greg Sheridan) IN 1993, my family and I moved into Belmore in southwest Sydney. It is the next suburb to Lakemba. When I first moved there I loved it.

Gunshots prompt prayers for peace (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 3 - Behind-the-scenes talks are trying to put a stop to terrifying, violent attacks on a minority religious community

Churches go into doom overdrive (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Apr 3 - CHRISTIAN ministers are linking the spate of world natural disasters to the Apocalypse and prophesying the end of the world.

OTHER

Police appalled by attack on Salvo (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 29 - Melbourne police are appalled by an ‘‘alcohol-fuelled’’ attack that left a Salvation Army social worker with a fractured skull.

Face of Jesus Christ appears in three-cheese pizza (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

Mar 30 - ALL hail Lord Cheesus - the holy apparition that appeared in a pizza.

Black magic curses and forced sex: victims break down in court (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 1 - Two women who were forced to have sex to lift supposed black magic curses have broken down while telling a judge of the ensuing consequences on their lives.

Also: Holy man used others to commit sex assault (Sydney Morning Herald)

Apr 1 - HE DID not lay a finger on the victim.