Religion News Selection
February 14 – 21, 2021
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Archbishop Anthony Fisher outraged over ‘provocative’ use of Sydney cathedral in LGBT concert ads (ABC News)
Feb 18 – The City of Sydney ordered the removal of an image of St Mary’s Cathedral from advertising of an LGBT concert after Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop described it as “frustrating and upsetting”.
EDUCATION
Catholic leader dismisses school funding reform as ‘flight of fantasy’ (Sydney Morning Herald)
Feb 17 – The NSW Catholic schools leader has dismissed former education minister Adrian Piccoli’s proposal for radical school funding reform to remedy growing segregation in schools as a “think tank fantasy”.
‘It’s a difficult culture to break’: Sydney private schools respond to sexual assault claims (Sydney Morning Herald)
Feb 21 – The principal of a Sydney private school believes an outpouring of testimonies about sexual assault experienced by former schoolgirls will become a powerful learning device for male and female students to understand the gravity of the issue.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Islam
There’s a reason Muslim women struggle to make their voices heard (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 15 – (Opinion: Nesrine Malik) Zesha Saleem is a young, hijab-wearing freelance journalist at the start of her career.
Sheikh Mohammed: disturbing glimpses beneath a refined public image (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 19 – Dubai ruler cultivates an image as a business visionary and poet, but haunting videos and court rulings offer a shadow biography
Religious Violence
Smuggled diary tells how abducted women survived Boko Haram camp (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 21 – The resistance began three months after the young women were taken from their school dormitory by Islamist militants and hidden in the depths of a forest.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Apology for Aboriginal art and cultural thefts to Tasmanian Indigenous communities long time coming (ABC News)
Feb 16 – Two of Tasmania’s oldest institutions have apologised to the state’s Aboriginal community for “nearly 200 years of practices were morally wrong”.
Hillsong founder’s shock decision (The Australian)
Feb 19 – The founder of scandal-plagued church group Hillsong will hand over the global reins to ‘younger’ pastors following a barrage of lawsuits.
Presbyterian church head says Victorian ban on gay conversion practices should be ignored (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 19 – The head of the Presbyterian church in Australia says its pastors will not be directed to obey the Victorian government’s new law banning gay conversion practices, calling the bill “a declaration of war on scripture”.
