Religion News Selection 20 (May 20

Religion News Selection 20 (May 20 - 27)

(26 May 12)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Selection

May 20 - 27, 2012

A selection of religion news stories from Australia.

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

Inclusion here does not endorse the veracity or quality of any particular item – it just means
I found it worth reading and reflecting on (even if badly conceived or poorly written).

If you’re after the unexpurgated (and reasonably unbiased) version,
see Religion News Australia which appears weekly on our website.

ABUSE

Victim tried to kill abuser (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

May 25 - A YOUNG victim of sexual abuse at a state-run boarding hostel in Western Australia says he tried to kill the warden who indecently assaulted him.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

An act of good faith (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 26 – (Review) In telling his own story, a popular former bishop laments the injustices of 'bad religion' and the lack of spirituality in the modern world.

EDUCATION

Protest builds against school plans (The Age, Melbourne)

May 24 - Opposition is growing to bids by three religious schools to expand into Canberra's northern and western suburbs.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Catholic Church

Vatican police 'involved in kidnap, sex parties' (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 24 - A TEENAGE girl whose disappearance in Rome has remained a mystery for 30 years was kidnapped for sex parties by a gang involving Vatican police and foreign diplomats, the Roman Catholic Church's leading exorcist has claimed.

Vatican publishes fake visionaries rules (news.com.au)

May 24 - FACED with modern-day claims of visions of the Virgin Mary and apparitions of long-dead saints, the Vatican published rules overnight to verify religious supernatural phenomena.

Vatican bank chief ousted (The West Australian)

May 25 - The Vatican says the head of its bank, who is being investigated in a money laundering case, has been ousted after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers.

The butler did it? Fresh twist in Vatican whodunit (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 27 - An on-again, off-again scandal the Italian press has called VatiLeaks burst into the open on Friday with the arrest by Vatican police of a man identified in news reports as Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's butler, who the Vatican said held confidential documents and was suspected of leaking private letters, some of which were addressed to Pope Benedict.

Islam

Indonesia's radical shift (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 22 – (Opinion: Michael Bachelard) WHEN I wrote a story in March about the Indonesian religious affairs minister wanting to ban mini-skirts because he believed them to be "pornographic", one comment on the Fairfax website stood out from the rest.

'Worst of outcomes' in Egyptian poll (The Age, Melbourne)

May 27 - EGYPT faces a presidential runoff vote between the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood and a former leader of the old regime, leaving the young liberal activists who overthrew president Hosni Mubarak asking: ''What happened to the revolution?''

US Politics

Obamacare could backfire on Barack (The Australian)

May 23 – (Opinion: Michael Gerson) IN a blowout US presidential election, a few large issues dominate.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Couples rejecting church weddings (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

May 21 - MOST couples used to want the big church wedding - now they want the big wedding without the church.

Virginity's unwitting casualties (The Age, Melbourne)

May 25 - A woman's virginity has long been a cultural fixation.

Speak out against gay marriage at your peril (The Australian)

May 26 – (Opinion: Angela Shanahan) FREEDOM of speech has been dealt yet another whack by the gay lobby determined to get its way on same-sex marriage and, what is worse, it was done in the name of human rights.

Also: Let's do away with demonology on both sides of the gay marriage question (The Australian)

May 27 – (Opinion: Frank Furedi) IS it possible to have a forthright but respectful disagreement on the question of gay marriage?