Religion News Australia
May 29 – June 5, 2022
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Welcome to Country at Catholic mass (The Australian)
May 30 – Catholics could soon be acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which their churches, schools and parishes stand, before Mass and meetings.
Pope takes Uluru statement to heart (The Australian)
May 30 – The Pope has accepted the Uluru Statement from the Heart at St Peter’s Square in Rome after a meeting with Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro.
EDUCATION
Scientology misleads parents at its schools via Montessori link (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 30 – A Scientology-linked primary school in Melbourne’s outer east has rebranded itself, erasing any public acknowledgment of the controversial religion while still using teaching methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Brisbane Catholic school asked students to seek approval for formal dresses (The Guardian, Australia)
June 1 – A Brisbane student says her school asked girls to submit photos of their formal dresses for “approval” after giving them an “outdated” booklet outlining the event’s dress code.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Anglican Church
Prince Andrew is trying to ‘make amends’, Archbishop of Canterbury says (WA Today)
June 1 – London: The Archbishop of Canterbury said Prince Andrew is seeking to “make amends” and highlighted the importance of forgiveness after Queen Elizabeth’s son’s fall from grace following accusations of sex abuse that led to a legal settlement.
Islam
‘A sign that we are here’: Muslim call to prayer sounds over Minneapolis soundscape (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 2 – Minneapolis: The chant in Arabic blasted from rooftop loudspeakers, drowning out both the growl of traffic from nearby interstates and the chatter and clinking glasses on the patio of the dive bar that shares a wall with Minneapolis’ oldest Somali mosque.
Religious Violence
Escape from Auschwitz: the most extraordinary Holocaust story you’ve never heard (The Guardian, Australia)
June 4 – A pair of Jewish prisoners plotted to break out of the death camp and tell the world the true horror of what they’d seen.
Other
Where do religious groups in the US stand on gun control? (ABC News)
June 1 – “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” This was the question asked by a distraught President Joe Biden in the wake of the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Trove of ancient Egyptian coffins and statues found at cemetery near Cairo (The Guardian, Australia)
June 1 – Archaeologists working near Cairo have uncovered hundreds of ancient Egyptian coffins and bronze statues of deities.
JUDAISM
Students faced anti-Semitic culture at Melbourne school, court told (The Age, Melbourne)
June 2 – A group of Jewish students at a Melbourne school were referred to as subhuman amid an anti-Semitic culture of taunts, violence and swastika graffiti, the Federal Court has heard.
POLITICS
Australia’s first two Muslim federal ministers sworn into office in historic moment (ABC News)
June 2 – As members of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ministry were sworn in one-by-one at Government House on Wednesday, Western Sydney Labor MP Ed Husic sat waiting for his turn with a sunset pink Qur’an in hand.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Race-based voice calls for more than a leap of faith (The Australian)
June 1 – (Opinion: Janet Albrechtsen) It’s going to take more than appeals to emotional yearnings by religious leaders to swing a potentially major change to our Constitution.
Great Stupa of Universal Compassion near Bendigo to host interfaith library of religious texts (ABC News)
June 4 – A library devoted to texts and artefacts from different faiths will be built at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, near Bendigo in Central Victoria, which organisers hope will attract scholars and people from around the world.
Indian MP visiting Australia appears to equate Muslim conquest of India with Holocaust (The Guardian, Australia)
June 4 – An Indian politician visiting Australia called the Muslim conquest of India “the bloodiest chapter in the history of the world” and appeared to equate it with the Holocaust amid a controversial speaking tour.