Religion News Australia
January 15 – 22, 2023
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
George Pell allowed lives to be destroyed to protect himself and the Catholic church (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 16 – (Opinion: Chrissie Foster) To be a sexual assault victim of Catholic clergy is to know the truth – the truth of your own experience.
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Mud-slinging is weakening the Catholic Church (The Australian)
Jan 19 – (Opinion: Helen Trinca ) For many observant Catholics, as well as those who have drifted away, the potential for raw politics in this extraordinary institution with its supernatural mission will surely be cause for dismay.
Milligan ‘ignores key facts on Pell’ (The Australian)
Jan 19 – (Opinion: Chris Merritt) One of the nation’s leading authorities on criminal law has accused ABC journalist Louise Milligan of repeatedly ignoring facts about the prosecution of the late Cardinal George Pell.
How Cardinal George Pell seduced News Corp (The Saturday Paper)
Jan 21 – (Opinion: Richard Ackland ) George Pell spent decades cultivating the Murdoch press, duchessing editors and senior journalists. The impacts of that political manoeuvring are clear in the coverage since his death.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Anglican Church
Church of England refuses to back same-sex marriage (Brisbane Times)
Jan 19 – London: The Church of England says it will allow blessings for same-sex, civil marriages for the first time but same-sex couples still will not be allowed to marry in its churches.
Islam
Tensions build between Türkiye and Sweden (ABC News)
Jan 22 – Amid Sweden’s bid to join NATO, protests in Stockholm against Türkiye, the gatekeeper to the Nordic country joining the military alliance, have sharply heightened tensions between the two countries.
Also: Turkey condemns burning of Qur’an during far-right protest in Sweden (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 22 – Turkey has condemned a demonstration involving the burning of Qur’ans in Sweden on Saturday, further inflaming tensions between the two countries amid Stockholm’s Nato bid.
Other
Indian diamond heiress becomes child nun, following in family tradition (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 19 – An eight-year-old girl in India who was due to inherit a multimillion-dollar diamond fortune has instead been admitted as a nun to a strict religious order after renouncing worldly pleasures.
With his luxury watch and murky Soviet past, Kirill is Putin’s spiritual leader and power broker (ABC News)
Jan 22 – When Patriarch Kirill sat down with Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov he might not have realised the meeting would embroil him in controversy.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Lunar New Year brings in the Year of the Rabbit, promising ‘change and hope’ in 2023 (ABC News)
Jan 22 – Sydney-based feng shui practitioner Meixi Yan says the Lunar New Year should usher in a time of “change and hope”.
‘It was very disrespectful’: Dispute over Chris Hemsworth filming at sacred site (Sydney Morning Herald)
Jan 22 – First Nations groups are divided over a television show depicting Australian Hollywood action hero Chris Hemsworth joining a ceremony after trekking through the New England National Park in northern NSW.
Hours from execution by the Nazis, Judith refused to deny her faith (Brisbane Times)
Jan 22 – A 92-year-old Latrobe Valley woman has shared her family’s extraordinary story of survival from Nazi terror.
