Religion News Australia
February 27 – March 6, 2022
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Abuse survivor takes Archdiocese of Melbourne to trial over historical sexual abuse (ABC News)
Mar 4 – Oliver* will never forget the day his life changed forever.
ANGLICAN CHURCH
Father Rod Bower, author of politically charged church billboard, leaves Central Coast (ABC News)
Feb 21 – It may not be as thought-provoking, politically charged, or controversial as his other church signs but his final one is just as to the point.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Abuse
Argentinian bishop sentenced to prison for sexual abuse despite pope’s defense (The Guardian, Australia)
Mar 5 – A court in Argentina has sentenced a Roman Catholic bishop to four and a half years in prison for sexual abuse of two former seminarians in a major blow to Pope Francis, who had initially defended the bishop.
Catholic Church
Pope gives fathers working at Vatican three-day paternity leave (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 2 – Vatican City: Pope Francis has urged couples to have more children, rather than pets, and called for family-friendly government policies.
Islam
Muslims still bear the stigma of the ‘Trojan horse’ scandal. Maybe that’s what was intended (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 28 – (Opinion: Nesrine Malik) If you were to poll a few hundred people, I wonder what they could tell you about the Operation Trojan Horse conspiracy story of 2014.
Religious Violence
Bombing of Shiite mosque in Pakistan kills at least 56, wounds 194 worshippers (ABC News)
Mar 5 – A powerful bomb has exploded inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s north-western city of Peshawar, killing at least 56 worshippers and wounding some 194 others, many of them critically, police say.
Other
I was so desperate to leave home I agreed to smuggle 80,000 Bibles into the USSR (The Guardian, Australia)
Mar 3 – (Opinion: Pieter Waterdrinker) One day a man in a tan mac and a comb-over appeared at my family’s door.
ISLAM
Tasmanian prison food, kitchen practices in need of overhaul, Custodial Inspector finds (ABC News)
Mar 3 – Kitchen staff in Tasmania’s prisons have been accused of dismissing food allergies and dietary diseases amongst prisoners and telling Muslim inmates that pork-containing meats were pork-free, a detailed review of prison nutrition has found.
POLITICS
Australian Christian Lobby criticises Scott Morrison for saying Ukrainians at ‘top of pile’ for visas (The Guardian, Australia)
Mar 3 – The Australian Christian Lobby has criticised the prime minister for saying visa applications from Ukrainian people are at “the top of the pile”, asking what message this sends to people “fleeing the horrors of the Taliban in Afghanistan”.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? (The Guardian, Australia)
Mar 6 – (Opinion: Tim Costello) With Russia invading Ukraine, its president, Vladimir Putin, has been painted by many in the western media as the most evil man in the world.
How a Buddhist monk lost it all by reaching for property nirvana (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 6 – Through the autumn and winter of 2018, two sharply dressed young men made regular visits to the Linh Son Buddhist Society’s temple in Reservoir in Melbourne’s north.
