Religion News Selection
May 8 – 15, 2022
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Marist Brothers appointed known child abuser as principal of Melbourne school in 1980, court told (The Guardian, Australia)
May 15 – A Catholic order made the “unthinkable” decision to appoint a known child abuser as the principal of one of its Melbourne schools, allowing him to molest boys in his office unchecked on a “regular basis”, a court has heard.
ANGLICAN CHURCH
‘Fundamentally awry’: bishops block move to reject same-sex marriage (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 11 – Australia’s Anglican bishops have thwarted an attempt by the powerful, conservative Sydney diocese to have the national church affirm that marriage is only between a man and a woman, prompting dire warnings from Sydney’s archbishop that the unity of the Australian church is in peril.
Also: Anglican disunity on same-sex marriage in Australia threatens to tear the church apart (The Guardian, Australia)
May 12 – The powerful Sydney diocese this week moved to impose its anti same-sex marriage agenda nationally, but it was thwarted by bishops
EDUCATION
‘Goes against our beliefs’: Parents and church clash over school values (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 13 – Last weekend, St Catherine’s – Australia’s oldest private girls’ school – held its biennial magnolia fundraising fair, featuring a petting zoo, glitter face painting, and a LEGO-building expo.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Religious Violence
Female student in Nigeria beaten to death over ‘blasphemy’ (The Guardian, Australia)
May 13 – A female student in Nigeria was beaten to death and set on fire by fellow students who accused her of posting “blasphemous” statements in a WhatsApp group, two witnesses have said.
POLITICS
Labor commits to religious freedom and LGBTQ protections but no timeline (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 10 – Labor will seek to legislate a religious discrimination act and scrap the ability of schools to expel gay and transgender students at the same time should it win government, but won’t give a timeline for pursuing the issue in the next parliament.
MP Rebekha Sharkie threatens legal action against Australian Christian Lobby over election flyers (The Guardian, Australia)
May 13 – Federal MP Rebekha Sharkie has threatened the Australian Christian Lobby with legal action after the group distributed flyers featuring her driving a wrecking ball through religious schools.
‘Idiotic’: Holocaust museum photo op boils over in Goldstein campaign (The Age, Melbourne)
May 15 – The fight for Melbourne’s bayside electorate of Goldstein has boiled over as a key Jewish volunteer for independent candidate Zoe Daniel called a photo opportunity for incumbent Tim Wilson at the Holocaust Museum “all bullshit”.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Sacred sites being put at risk due to native title law, Queensland review told (The Guardian, Australia)
May 12 – Thirty years after the landmark Mabo decision relegated terra nullius to legal fiction, a number of Indigenous Queenslanders say the resulting native title laws can be used to “box tick” approvals for the destruction of sacred sites.
Was this ancient vessel a hand grenade? If so, it backs up a long-debated theory about the Crusades (ABC News)
May 15 – Much is known about life in the Middle East at the time of the Crusades, but one type of vessel still presents something of a mystery.
