Religion News Selection
May 29 – June 5, 2022
A selection of 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.
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.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
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.
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
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.
