Religion News Selection
July 17 – 24, 2022
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Bernard Collaery’s divine intervener (The Saturday Paper)
July 17 – When the decision to end his prosecution was announced, one of the first people that whistleblower Bernard Collaery called was a 76-year-old, plain-clothed, straight-talking nun living in a south-western Sydney convent.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Islam
Send us a man to do your job so we can sack you, Taliban tell female officials (The Guardian, Australia)
July 18 – The Taliban have asked women employees at Afghanistan’s finance ministry to send a male relative to do their job a year after female public-sector workers were barred from government work and told to stay at home.
Religious Violence
Taliban presiding over extensive rights abuses in Afghanistan, says UN (The Guardian, Australia)
July 21 – Taliban authorities have presided over widespread human rights abuses since they took control of Afghanistan last August, the UN said, including 160 killings of former government officials and members of the security forces, and dozens of cases of torture, arbitrary arrests and inhumane punishments.
Other
On Greece’s Santorini, 13 cloistered nuns pray for the world (ABC News)
July 18 – Cruise-ship tourists crowding souvenir shops and couples chasing the perfect Instagram sunset throng the alleyway outside the Monastery of St Catherine, steps from Santorini’s world-famous volcanic cliffs.
POLITICS
‘We don’t trust in governments’ or UN, Scott Morrison tells Margaret Court’s Perth church (The Guardian, Australia)
July 18 – Scott Morrison has said he and his fellow worshippers “don’t trust in governments” and “don’t trust in the United Nations” during a sermon at Margaret Court’s church, where the former prime minister also said God had a “plan” for him after his election defeat.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Exclusive Brethren family smash Epping record buying $7.5 million house (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 24 – The family of Exclusive Brethren world leader Bruce D. Hales have emerged as the record $7.5 million buyers of a house in Epping.
Greek archbishop sues pensioners, critics for defamation (The Age, Melbourne)
July 24 – The leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia is suing several of his and the church’s biggest critics, with the help of one of the country’s top defamation lawyers.
