Religion News Australia 2012 - 11 (Mar 11

Religion News Australia 2012 - 11 (Mar 11 - 18)

(17 March 12)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

Mar 11 - 18, 2012

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

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

ABUSE

Church 'won't hide away' from sex abuse inquiry (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 15 - THE Catholic Church in Melbourne has nothing to hide from an independent inquiry into its handling of sexual abuse allegations under the Melbourne Response, the city's Archbishop, Denis Hart, said yesterday.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Luke Cornish hoping to make the Archibal Prize finals with portrait of Father Bob Maguire (news.com.au)

Mar 15 - IF Luke Cornish's portrait of Father Bob Maguire makes it into the finals of the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW today, street artists all over Australia will cheer one of their own as he crashes a famous art establishment party.

EDUCATION

University students speak about degrading rituals after 30 suspended for drinking initiation (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 17 - WHEN Michael Bongers arrived at St John's College, the prestigious Catholic boarding institution at the University of Sydney, he brought with him an ambitious reform agenda.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Anglican Church

Archbishop of Canterbury announces retirement (ABC News)

Mar 17 - The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has announced he is resigning at the end of the year, ending a 10-year term which has seen the Anglican Church split as never before.

Also: Williams quits as Anglican leader (The Australian)

Mar 17 - THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced his resignation last night after struggling to maintain church unity over women and gay bishops as the head of the worldwide Anglican communion for the past decade.

Also: Head of Anglican church to step down (The Global Mail)

Mar 17 - London (CNN) -- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the 85 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, announced Friday he will step down from his post at the end of the year.

Also: Williams quits as Anglican head, says successor needs "rhino skin" (The West Australian)

Mar 18 - LONDON (Reuters) - Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has agonized about schisms in the Anglican Communion over women and gay bishops and same-sex unions, announced unexpectedly on Friday that he would step down at the end of the year.

Also: Anglican head closes book on tumultuous reign (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 18 - Rows over attitudes to homosexuality and women bishops have hampered Rowan Williams and divided his church.

Catholic Church

Cardinal says pope wants revival of faith in Cuba (The West Australian)

Mar 14 - HAVANA (Reuters) - Pope Benedict wants to help revive religious faith in Cuba when he visits the communist island later this month, the leader of Cuba's Catholic Church said in a nationally televised address.

Dissidents occupy Catholic church in Cuba (The West Australian)

Mar 15 - HAVANA (AFP) - With a papal visit looming, dissidents occupied a Catholic church demanding Pope Benedict XVI press for political freedom in Cuba, religious and dissident sources said.

Papal eau de nature (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 16 - He is picky about his robes and his red shoes are tailor-made, and now Pope Benedict has ordered a custom-blended eau de cologne just for him.

Vatican issues ultimatum to traditionalist Catholic group (The West Australian)

Mar 17 - VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Friday told an ultra-traditionalist Roman Catholic splinter group they must accept non-negotiable doctrinal principles within a month or risk a painful break with Rome that would have "incalculable" consequences.

Islam

Egyptian candidate gives a voice to moderate Islamists (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 15 - ONE spent a career working beside the dictator Hosni Mubarak. The other spent years in his jails.

Rushdie repels Khan (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 16 - Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician, has pulled out of a conference in Delhi because of the expected attendance of author Salman Rushdie.

Religious Violence

Shot, stoned, beaten to death: Iraqi militias unleash hate war on gay 'emo' teens (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 12 - Iraqi teenagers widely perceived to be gay are being brutally killed in Baghdad with Shi'ite militias distributing lists of targets warning of further assaults, officials and human rights groups say.

US soldier 'kills 15 Afghan civilians' (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 12 - PANJWAY, Afghanistan: At least 15 Afghan civilians were killed when an American soldier walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan and opened fire on three nearby houses, local villagers said yesterday.

Also: Afghan village massacre will compound US problem (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 13 – (Opinion: Amin Saikal) The horrific actions of a rogue US soldier will only help the Taliban.

Also: Swift payback: Taliban springs attack at rogue sniper's killing site (Perth Now)

Mar 14 - ONE person died and at least one other was injured when a high-level Afghani government delegation came under fire today, while visiting the scene of a shooting rampage by a US soldier that left 16 villagers dead.

Also: Afghan elder crushed after 11 relatives slain (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 14 - DISPLACED by the war, Abdul Samad finally moved his large family back home to the volatile district of Panjwai in southern Afghanistan last year.

Taliban suspend peace talks with US (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 17 - THE Taliban have suspended peace talks in Qatar with the US, complicating the Obama administration's plans for an orderly exit from Afghanistan.

Karzai slams US amid massacre row (ABC News)

Mar 17 - Afghan president Hamid Karzai has accused the United States of failing to cooperate with an Afghan investigation into a shooting rampage that left 16 civilians dead.

Bin Laden wanted to attack Obama directly (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 17 - Before his death, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had ordered his followers in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Barack Obama, the Washington Post reports.

Tibetan monk 'sets himself alight' in China (The West Australian)

Mar 17 - BEIJING (AFP) - A young Tibetan monk set himself on fire in southwestern China before being beaten and dragged away by Chinese security forces, according to a rights group.

Other

Russia refuses to release anti-Putin punks (The West Australian)

Mar 14 - MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia on Wednesday refused to free from pre-trial detention two members of female opposition punk rock group Pussy Riot who face up to seven years in jail for performing in a church.

Native American tribe allowed to kill bald eagles (ABC News)

Mar 15 - The US Fish and Wildlife Service has approved a first-time permit allowing a Native American tribe in Wyoming to kill two bald eagles in a centuries-old religious ceremony once outlawed by the federal bureau of Indian affairs.

Churches see red over ad (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 16 - Red Bull, the energy-drink maker, has dropped an advertisement after an outcry from Christians and Muslims about its portrayal of Jesus Christ walking on water.

Egypt's Coptic Pope dies (ABC News)

Mar 18 - Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenuda III, spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, died at the age of 88, state television and cathedral sources said.

Also: Egypt Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda dies - adviser (The West Australian)

Mar 18 - CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of most of Egypt's estimated 12 million Christians, died on Saturday from old age, his political adviser told Reuters.

ISLAM

It's all relative as Tiger Houli says thanks (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 14 - THE word ''faith'' comes up often when Richmond's Bachar Houli speaks about his new role as the AFL's Muslim ambassador.

Sharia advocate 'used Kyle and Jackie O's facebook page for threat against Mardi Gras' (The Australian)

Mar 14 - AN Australian-born Sharia law advocate allegedly used the facebook page of commercial radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O to issue a fake terrorist threat to the Sydney gay and lesbian Mardi Gras.

Daughter disputes Muslim will that gave brothers twice as much (The Australian)

Mar 14 - THE Supreme Court of the ACT has stepped into a bitter dispute over whether a devout Muslim's three sons should each inherit twice as much as her daughters on the grounds that "one boy is equal to two girls".

Also: 1400 years of tradition no excuse for sexism (Perth Now)

Mar 15 - The concept that sons hold a special place over and above daughters is not held solely by the more orthodox practitioners of the Muslim faith, but can be found to varying degrees across a range of cultures.

Also: Respect our way on wills, say Muslims (The Australian)

Mar 15 - SENIOR Muslim leaders have defended the use of Islamic law in Australia, particularly in the execution of wills that favour sons over daughters, arguing Australian courts should respect the religious wishes of Islamic citizens.

POLITICS

West must halt Islam rift - Carr (Sydney Morning Herald)

Mar 17 - Bob Carr has promised ''no bold departures'' from Australia's foreign policy direction but wants to elevate the worsening rift between Islam and the West and the destruction of the world's oceans onto the global agenda.

Roxon baulks at role for sharia by Australian Muslims (The Australian)

Mar 17 - ATTORNEY-GENERAL Nicola Roxon has weighed in on the use of sharia by Australian Muslims to write wills, declaring there is no place for Islamic law to settle family issues.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Ads pose a moral dilemma (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Mar 16 - A NEW and unlikely force for public morality seems to be emerging in the western world: Advertisers.

Heavenly opportunity for pagans to party (The Age, Melbourne)

Mar 18 - THIS Tuesday might be an ordinary day for most of us but for Melbourne's pagan community it is the day to celebrate the heavenly alignment of the Earth and the sun in the autumn equinox.