Category Archives: Christianity

Canberra Liberal apologises for writing book that paints rosy colonisation picture and skips frontier wars

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One exercise in History of Australia, a student workbook and teaching manual, asks pupils to discuss how Aboriginal people were ‘blessed’ by the British coming

Peter Cain, the ACT’s shadow attorney general, has apologised “wholeheartedly” for a 2002 workbook he wrote which does not mention the frontier wars and paints a rosy picture of how Christian settlers helped First Nations peoples.

In History of Australia, a student workbook and teacher’s manual published by Light Educational Ministries, Cain wrote that when the British arrived, “some were afraid of the Aboriginals; some treated them badly”.

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US Catholic diocese agrees to pay $323m to child sexual abuse survivors

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Rockville Centre diocese in New York settles with more than 530 victims after proposed deal comes close to failure

A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than $323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.

The diocese of Rockville Centre, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said earlier this year that it did not think a bankruptcy settlement would be possible after abuse survivors rejected the diocese’s previous $200m settlement offer.

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Outcry as New Orleans judge further delays retired priest’s rape case

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Calls rise for Benedict Willard to be punished after recusing himself from Lawrence Hecker case on morning of trial

Court watchdogs and advocates for victims of sexual abuse are calling for a New Orleans judge to be punished and voted out of office after he controversially delayed the trial of retired Catholic priest charged with child rape and kidnapping – on the morning of jury selection.

Judge Benedict Willard’s critics say his angry outbursts have been a problem over more than two decades on the bench. But they are raising fresh concerns after Willard’s decision to remove members of the local district attorney’s office during a rape trial in August reverberated to affect the eagerly anticipated trial of Lawrence Hecker, 93, on Tuesday.

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Louisiana Catholic church turns to federal court to attack law aiding abuse victims

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‘If anyone could undo … the will of Louisiana … the Catholic church can and will,’ says survivor whose case is targeted

Months after Louisiana’s supreme court upheld the constitutionality of a state law that let child molestation victims sue for long-ago abuse, despite arguments to the contrary by a Roman Catholic diocese, another church organization is asking the federal government to strike the statute down.

Behind the request in question are the Dominican Sisters of Peace and a law firm that boasts about having represented Catholic institutions in Louisiana courts for more than a century. Another of the law firm’s clients in question, the archdiocese of New Orleans, is offering clergy molestation victims less than 10% of what they are requesting in a bankruptcy settlement, in part by arguing the so-called “lookback window” law doesn’t apply to more than 600 abuse claims.

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Religious groups ‘spending billions to counter gender-equality education’

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Report reveals how US Christians, Catholic schools and Islamists fight sex education, LGBTQ+ and equal rights

Extreme religious groups and political parties are targeting schools around the world as part of a coordinated and well-funded attack on gender equality, according to a new report.

Well-known conservative organisations aim to restrict girls’ access to education, change what is on the curriculum, and influence educational laws and policies, according to Whose Hands on our Education, a report by the Overseas Development Institute.

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Pope Francis welcomed to remote Papua New Guinea as he seeks ‘to break down distances’

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The pontiff visited the small town of Vanimo after delivering mass to an estimated 35,000 people in the capital of Port Moresby

Pope Francis travelled to Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s remote north-west coast, after celebrating a mass in the capital of Port Moresby in front of an estimated audience of 35,000 people.

The pope received an enthusiastic welcome in the town located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. He was greeted by members of the small Catholic community who are served by missionaries from his native Argentina.

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Anglican group launches £7m project in Barbados to atone for slavery atrocities

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Funds will help communities living on the Codrington estate, which was home to two sugar plantations

An Anglican church group is to launch a £7m reconciliation project in Barbados to atone for the atrocities of transatlantic slavery and compensate descendants of enslaved people.

United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG), a UK-based missionary organisation created in 1701 to convert people in the colonies to Christianity, will work with local and regional partners in the Caribbean to allocate money to education and entrepreneurial grants and historical research. It will also support land ownership among descendants of enslaved people.

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Dementia diagnosis could delay trial of New Orleans priest accused of rape

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Attorneys for Lawrence Hecker, charged with raping teen in 1975, urge judge to declare him incompetent to stand trial

Retired Catholic priest and self-acknowledged child molester Lawrence Hecker’s trial on rape and kidnapping charges – scheduled for 24 September – could be significantly delayed yet again after a medical report on the 92-year-old’s mental health has been filed in court.

A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation diagnosed Hecker with dementia, saying he has “good days and bad days”, according to a statement from his defense team. Defense attorneys Matthew McLaren and Eugene Redmann issued a statement Tuesday urging judge Benedict Willard to declare Hecker incompetent to stand trial.

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Pope Francis to set off on challenging 12-day Asia-Pacific tour

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Pontiff’s itinerary, including visits to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, reflects importance of Asia to Catholic church

Pope Francis is to embark on the longest, farthest and perhaps most challenging trip of his pontificate as he begins a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour that is expected to highlight environmental threats, emphasise interfaith dialogue and reinforce the importance of Asia for the Catholic church.

The 87-year-old will set off on Monday on a tour taking in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, a trip that will clock up more than 20,000 miles by air.

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Bones found in north-west Spain could be legendary bishop’s, scientists believe

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New examination supports claim remains are of Teodomiro, a key figure in establishing Camino de Santiago pilgrimage

Scientists believe a set of ancient bones discovered in north-west Spain almost 70 years ago are those of the bishop whose devotion to St James the Apostle paved the way for the Camino de Santiago path taken by countless footsore pilgrims over the past 12 centuries.

According to historical sources and oral tradition, Bishop Teodomiro of Iria Flavia discovered the remains of St James – who was martyred in Jerusalem between the years AD41 and 44 – in an abandoned cemetery in what is now the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela. Teodomiro is said to have received the revelation in the early ninth century after days of fasting and meditation – and with a little help from a visionary local hermit.

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Archbishop of Canterbury warns Christians against membership of far-right groups

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Exclusive: Justin Welby condemns violent disorder of recent days as ‘unchristian’

The archbishop of Canterbury has warned Christians they should not be part of any far-right groups, criticising the use of Christian imagery in this summer’s riots as “an offence to our faith”.

Writing in the Guardian, Justin Welby condemned the violent unrest, which he described as “racist”, “anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-asylum seeker”. His intervention follows a week of disorder that began after a mass stabbing of children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last month.

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New Orleans Catholic priest accused of raping teen in 1975 gets trial date

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Lawrence Hecker will face court on kidnapping and rape charges in September pending a final competency ruling

A doctor’s report says that Lawrence Hecker, the retired New Orleans priest who faces charges of raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious in 1975, has dementia – but it says nothing about Hecker’s competency to stand trial.

On Thursday, after seven hearings and still no definitive determination on Hecker’s competency, his trial on rape and kidnapping charges has been set for 24 September.

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Volunteer with key role in New Orleans church bankruptcy admits to stunning lack of qualifications

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Lee Eagan said he lacked prior experience, failed to familiarize himself with rules and suffered cognitive decline as case expenses soar to $40m

A US government official is questioning the soaring legal fees paid by the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans after the volunteer managing the organization’s four-and-a-half-year-old bankruptcy admitted under oath to a stunning lack of qualifications for his role. Lee Eagan, a local businessman, testified in early July to having never previously policed the costs of a bankruptcy as well as failing to familiarize himself with the rules for that kind of proceeding.

He also swore – in a separate series of earlier depositions – to grappling with substantial cognitive decline after a severe car crash nearly two years beforehand.

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Olympic ‘Last Supper’ scene was in fact based on painting of Greek gods, say art experts

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Dutch artist’s 17th-century work said to have inspired tableau that has offended Christian and conservative critics

A controversial tableau in the Olympics opening ceremony denounced by Christian and conservative critics as an offensive parody of The Last Supper was in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods, art historians have said.

“Does this painting remind you of something?” the Magnin Museum in the French city of Dijon asked (with a wink) on X, inviting people to “come and admire” The Feast of the Gods, painted by the artist Jan van Bijlert between 1635 and 1640.

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Paris Olympics organisers apologise to Christians for Last Supper parody

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Apology follows anger among Catholics and other groups at opening ceremony segment that resembled biblical scene

The organising committee of Paris 2024 has apologised to Catholics and other Christian groups who were outraged by a scene during the opening ceremony that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting with drag queens, a transgender model and a singer made up as the Greek god of wine.

The parody of the biblical scene, performed against the backdrop of the River Seine, was intended to interpret Dionysus and raise awareness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings”, organisers wrote on X.

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Slave trader Colston left bequest to Church of England, archive shows

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As archbishop of Canterbury visits Jamaica, research reveals trader left money to church’s missionary arm

The archbishop of Canterbury has spoken of the work to address the Church of England’s historic links to chattel slavery on a trip to Jamaica, as archive research reveals that the slave trader Edward Colston left a bequest in the 18th century to the church’s missionary arm.

Justin Welby is on a three-day visit to the West Indies to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. He said a £100m fund set up by the church would be used to benefit communities “which still bear the scars” from slavery.

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Rouen Cathedral fire brought under control in Normandy

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City authorities say blaze in spire contained after plume of smoke seen rising from 12th-century gothic building

Firefighters in the Normandy city of Rouen have managed to bring a fire in its world-famous gothic cathedral under control, calming fears of another disaster at one of France’s architectural jewels five years after the devastation of Notre Dame.

Initial television images showed a dark plume of smoke rising from the cathedral spire and people in the streets below looking up in horror.

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Artwork featuring Christ overlaid with Looney Tunes characters removed by Sydney council after threats of violence

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Online protest claimed the work mocked the Christian religion and Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun called for it to be taken down

A Sydney council has removed a “playful” artwork of Jesus Christ overlaid with Looney Tunes characters after a torrent of online abuse.

Sydney artist Philjames’ work, Jesus Speaks to the Daughters of Jerusalem, was removed from the Blake Art Prize exhibition at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre after fierce criticism was directed at the artist and gallery on Friday, just two days before the eight-week exhibition ended.

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Louisiana families file lawsuit against Ten Commandments display in schools

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Human rights groups also back filing which aims to block state’s new law forcing public schools to showcase text

Several Louisiana families backed by human rights groups have lodged a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the state’s new law forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

The suit was filed with the US district court in Baton Rouge on Monday at the start of what is expected to be an epic legal battle that could end up before the US supreme court. Christian nationalists have been itching for this fight, hoping to destroy the country’s longstanding separation of church and state.

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Megachurch pastor and ex-Trump adviser admits child sexual abuse

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Robert Morris, of Greenway church in Dallas, accused of sexual abuse of girl in 1980s, beginning when she was 12

A Texas evangelical pastor and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump has confessed to sexually assaulting a young girl in his past.

Robert Morris, a founding pastor of the Dallas-based Gateway megachurch, was accused by an Oklahoma woman of sexual abuse in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 and continuing until the age of 16.

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