Religion News Australia
October 23 – 30, 2022
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Tasmanian Marist Catholic IT worker pleads guilty to sexually exploiting multiple young girls (ABC News)
Oct 28 – A staff member at a Tasmanian Catholic school accused of sexually exploiting multiple students and young girls has pleaded guilty to a string of offences.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Let there be light: England’s Anglican cathedrals at dawn (The Guardian, Australia)
Oct 30 – There are few experiences more uplifting and humbling than standing in the nave of a cathedral.
ANGLICAN CHURCH
A ‘permanent acknowledgement of country’ installed at Melbourne’s St Paul’s Cathedral (ABC News)
Oct 30 – Growing up, Glenn Loughrey didn’t understand why he and his relatives were sometimes treated differently.
EDUCATION
University unlawfully sacked lecturer over Nazi swastika incident, court finds (Brisbane Times)
Oct 28 – The higher education union is calling for Sydney University to reinstate controversial lecturer Tim Anderson after a court found he was unlawfully sacked over comments about Israel and other matters – including superimposing the Nazi swastika on the Israeli flag in a lecture slide.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Judaism
Kanye West — a musical giant who crashed to earth (The Australian)
Oct 28 – His anti-Semitic rhetoric has led to his business partners deserting him.
Also: Kanye West claims he lost $2bn in one day amid backlash to antisemitic comments (The Guardian, Australia)
Oct 28 – Kanye West says he lost $2bn in a single day this week after losing several major partnerships over his antisemitic comments.
Religious Violence
Two car bombs in Mogadishu leave at least 100 people dead, Somali president says (ABC News)
Oct 30 – At least 100 people have been killed and 300 injured in two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, the country’s president has said in a statement.
Other
Dazzling lights illuminate homes and streets across India as country celebrates Diwali Hindu festival (ABC News)
Oct 25 – Indians have celebrated Diwali as bright earthen oil lamps and dazzling, colourful lights lit up homes and streets across the country to mark the Hindu festival.
Get-rich-quick schemes drained my town’s wealth. At a Christian conference, their legacy lives on (The Guardian, Australia)
Oct 28 – Life Surge, where speakers include Tim Tebow and a Duck Dynasty star, ties together faith and financial planning
Church of Scientology plays down links with high-profile #MeToo cases (The Guardian, Australia)
Oct 30 – The components are familiar: a powerful celebrity man in the dock, women bringing accusations of rape, jurors, lawyers and a judge attempting to apply the law by overseeing the legal process.
ISLAM
Return of Islamic State brides to Australia causes fear for those who escaped the brutality (ABC News)
Oct 28 – Mohamed Ibrahim can barely bring himself to recall his run-in with so-called Islamic State fighters.
‘Joyous’ father reunited with IS family (The Australian)
Oct 30 – A ‘joyous’ father has been reunited with his daughter and grandchildren after four Islamic State families returned to Australia.
POLITICS
NSW, Victorian premiers offer differing views on repatriation of IS families (Sydney Morning Herald)
Oct 30 – NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has distanced himself from a federal government move to repatriate family members of Islamic State fighters, saying the decision was “difficult” and his priority was the safety of the people of his state.
Also: ‘Full responsibility’: Michaelia Cash challenges Labor on security after repatriation of families
Oct 30 – The Albanese government must assume “full responsibility” if there is any risk to Australians from repatriating women and children from Syrian camps after the fall of Islamic State, Michaelia Cash has warned.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Keita Courtney Martin, one of 14 accused of Elizabeth Struh’s murder, pleads not guilty (ABC News)
Oct 26 – A member of a religious group charged with the murder of an eight-year-old girl has described how they sat, sang and prayed while the child became progressively ill and died.
Also: Mother of Elizabeth Struhs previously jailed for failing get child medical assistance, court hears (ABC News)
Oct 28 – The mother of an eight-year-old girl who died after her insulin was withheld had previously served time in prison for failing to get medical assistance for her child, a court has been told.
