Religion News Selection
May 14 – 28, 2023
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Survivor of former Townsville paedophile priest Neville Creen reveals toll the abuse took on her life (ABC News)
May 27 – As a child Megan was full of promise.
Anglican delays ‘re-traumatised abuse victims’ (The Australian)
May 28 – The Anglican Church body that investigated former governor-general Peter Hollingworth over his handling of child sex abuse cases has been slammed by senior lawyers.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Kidnapped review – Marco Bellocchio’s antisemitism drama is a classic in the making (The Guardian, Australia)
May 24 – Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy kidnapped by papal authorities, this is a full-tilt melodrama that lays bare tyranny, bigotry and the abuse of power in the Catholic church
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Catholic Church
The pope and Emanuela Orlandi: Vatican back in the spotlight over mystery of missing girl (The Guardian, Australia)
May 28 – Not long before she disappeared in the summer of 1983, Emanuela Orlandi went to Piazza del Catalone, a small square just outside of the Vatican walls, to meet friends.
Religious Violence
A religious community turned into a starvation cult (ABC News)
May 21 – The man who walked into Langobaya Police Station had such a horrific story to tell, it seemed almost unbelievable.
Author Salman Rushdie says freedom of expression is under attack in the West (ABC News)
May 28 – Novelist Salman Rushdie has warned that countries in the West face the most-severe threats to freedom of expression and freedom to publish in his lifetime, speaking nine months after a man repeatedly stabbed him while he was on stage in New York.
Other
Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me review (The Guardian, Australia)
May 17 – (Opinion: Rebecca Nicholson) It may sound as if its title has come from the Alan Partridge school of TV commissioning, but there is nothing at all humorous about Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me.
Republican bill requiring display of Ten Commandments in Texas schools fails (The Guardian, Australia)
May 25 – Republicans in Texas failed to pass legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school classroom.
Hebrew Bible, which is 1,100 years old, sells for $57 million at auction in New York (ABC News)
May 28 – A 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible that is one of the world’s oldest surviving biblical manuscripts has sold for $US38 million ($57 million) in New York.
