Religion News Australia
June 13 – 20, 2021
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
EDUCATION
‘Greedy land grab’: Why Sydney’s top private schools can be difficult neighbours (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 20 – Private schools are becoming some of Sydney’s most controversial developers, with neighbouring residents and local councils opposing their lavish plans.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Catholic Church
Vatican priest-turned-whistleblower pens world’s only Latin news column (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 19 – Palermo: Years after he lost his dream job in the Vatican’s Latin department, left the priesthood, came out as gay, went public with sensational accounts of rampant sex among clergy in Rome and reinvented himself as a gay rights activist and journalist, Francesco Lepore returned to the Vatican to discuss a new gig.
Other
The martyr who may rise again: Christian right’s faith in Trump not shaken (The Guardian, Australia)
June 20 – The talk in the carpeted corridors of the Road to Majority conference suggests the ex-president’s big lie has firmly taken root
ISLAM
Terror plotter ‘ashamed’ and has denounced beliefs, lawyer tells court (The Age, Melbourne)
June 16 – A man who, with two friends, planned to buy an assault rifle to gun down people in Melbourne lacked the fanaticism of other terror plotters and is now “ashamed” of his actions, his lawyer has told a court.
Also: Plotter a ‘simple soul’ who lacked commitment to terror cause, court told (The Age, Melbourne)
June 17 – A terror plotter has been depicted by his lawyer as “a simple soul” who made a mistake getting involved in a plan to gun down people in Melbourne and lacked commitment to his cause.
‘A hard sell’: the Aussie dad battling to get his ‘ISIS bride’ daughter home (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 19 – After Kamalle Dabboussy learnt his daughter had travelled to Syria with her Islamic State fighter husband, he was told to stay quiet.
POLITICS
Christian soldiers fight back in Liberals’ holy war (The Australian)
June 19 – John Howard’s broad church had half its pews pulled out this week – and Christian conservatives are asking why they’re treated like pariahs.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
From relationships to home ownership, young women are imagining a different future (ABC News)
June 19 – Jacinta Gregory isn’t sure she wants to get married — but if she does, she knows what it will look like.
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster loses bid for legal recognition as incorporated entity (ABC News)
June 19 – The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster will remain in the realms of satire, after an attempt to have its Australian wing formally recognised was rejected by a South Australian legal authority on the grounds that the purported religion is nothing more than a “hoax”.
Generosity or exploitation? Why some Australians give 10 per cent of their income to a church (ABC News)
June 20 – Fifteen years ago, Catherine Fuertes made a financial decision that would ripple through her life.
The price of this Hobart heritage-listed church may seem low, but don’t be fooled, says estate agent (ABC News)
June 20 – A towering Gothic church made from pink sandstone in the heart of Hobart is up for sale for the cost of a small Sydney apartment.
