Category Archives: Religion

Christian prayer march along Newtown street was ‘unauthorised protest activity’, police say

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Around 30 men filmed marching down the LGBTQ+ hub of King Street praying and holding rosary beads above their heads

A group of around 30 men staged a Christian protest march on a popular entertainment strip in Sydney’s inner west on Friday night, in what police confirmed was “unauthorised protest activity”.

The men were filmed marching down King Street in Newtown, while praying and holding rosary beads above their heads.

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King Charles coronation oil is consecrated in Jerusalem

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Oil has been created using olives from two groves on Mount of Olives, and a formula dating back centuries

The fragrant chrism oil that will be used to anoint King Charles during his coronation in May was made sacred in Jerusalem on Friday.

A ceremony took place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the holy oil was consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum.

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Sydney Anglican church accuses law reform commission of double standard over religious school hiring

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Submission says agency’s push to enable LGBTQ+ role models ‘preferences one worldview over another’

The Sydney Anglican church has accused the Australian Law Reform Commission of a “double standard” for seeking to give LGBTQ+ students role models while limiting the ability of religious schools to hire by faith.

The church’s submission to a review of exemptions for religious schools from discrimination law is part of a broader conservative backlash that has prompted the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to recommit the government to allowing schools to select staff based on faith.

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Catholic church uses paedophile priest’s death to try to block NSW survivor’s lawsuit

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Case is latest in series where church seeks to capitalise on landmark ruling that a priest’s death meant church could not receive a fair trial

The Catholic church is attempting to use the death of a paedophile, who had been jailed for the abuse of 17 children, to shield itself from further civil claims from his survivors.

In recent months, the church has adopted an increasingly aggressive approach to survivors in cases where paedophile clergy have died. It has sought to capitalise on a recent decision in New South Wales’s highest court that ruled a priest’s death meant the church could not receive a fair trial in a claim brought by a woman known as GLJ.

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Maths teacher accused of misgendering pupil on religious grounds

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Joshua Sutcliffe denies regulator’s charge of prioritising his convictions over pupil’s interests

A maths teacher “failed to separate the teacher from the preacher” when he allegedly misgendered a transgender pupil repeatedly and inappropriately shared his religious beliefs in the classroom, a misconduct panel heard.

Joshua Sutcliffe, 32, was accused by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) of “conduct that negatively affected pupils” on multiple occasions during his time at schools in Oxford and London. He denies the charges of professional misconduct.

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Hillsong College allegedly taught some students women should ‘submit’ sexually to husbands

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The school’s code of conduct instructs students to ‘abstain from biblically immoral practices’, including ‘sexual sins’

Patriarchal churches that teach women should “submit” to men are creating a culture where abuse can thrive, experts say.

A News Corp Australia podcast has alleged that some female students at Hillsong College, part of Hillsong Church, were taught to “submit” sexually to their husbands, which one former student described as “kind of a rape culture”.

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Labour’s Preet Gill accused of undermining Sikh victims of sexual violence

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Shadow development secretary urged those calling Sikh temples unsafe to submit written apologies

Grassroots Labour supporters have complained about the behaviour of Preet Gill, the shadow international development secretary, whom they accuse of undermining Sikh victims of sexual violence.

Sikh members have made a complaint to the party after Gill sent a series of messages on a WhatsApp group that appeared to cast doubt on allegations of sexual abuse within gurdwaras.

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Matt Kean backs push to outlaw gay conversion practices in NSW

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Leading Coalition moderate says he supports the concept but is waiting to see Alex Greenwich’s bill

The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, says he “wholeheartedly” supports a push to outlaw gay conversion practices in the state, despite the premier, Dominic Perrottet, refusing to say whether he would support a ban.

As Sydney prepares to play host to the WorldPride festival beginning this week, the powerful crossbench MP Alex Greenwich has made a ban on the practice a condition of his support in the event of a hung parliament after the March state election.

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PM reaffirms commitment to allow religious schools to hire staff based on faith

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Albanese says Labor made its position ‘clear a long time ago’ after religious groups reject proposal as having ‘severe limits’

Anthony Albanese has reiterated that Labor will respect religious schools’ right to select staff based on faith, after widespread backlash from religious groups to a proposal to limit their hiring and firing powers.

On Monday an alliance of religious leaders rejected a proposal by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to allow religious preference only where “the teaching, observance or practice of religion is a genuine occupational requirement”.

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Sudan court sentences three men to hand amputation for stealing

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The verdict, the first of its kind in almost a decade, has shocked many who fear country is sliding back into state extremism

Three Sudanese men have been sentenced to hand amputation for stealing, the first time in almost a decade that such a punishment has been handed down in the country’s courts.

The three men in their 20s were convicted of stealing gas cylinders in Omdurman, Sudan’s most populous city, which sits across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum.

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Portugal: Catholic clergy abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, inquiry finds

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Independent commission reaches conclusion after hearing evidence from over 500 survivors last year

Catholic clergy in Portugal have abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, an independent commission said on Monday after hearing hundreds of survivors’ accounts.

Thousands of reports of paedophilia within the church have surfaced around the world, and Pope Francis is under pressure to tackle the scandal.

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Mob storms Pakistan police station and lynches man accused of blasphemy

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Killing is latest in string of mob attacks against people accused of blasphemy in Muslim-majority south Asian country

A mob in eastern Pakistan stormed a police station on Saturday and snatched a Muslim man accused of blasphemy from police custody and lynched him, in the latest religion-linked killing in the conservative Islamic country.

Muhammad Waris, in his mid-30s, was in police custody in Nankana Sahib in Punjab province, 80km (50 miles) from Lahore, for desecrating pages of the Qur’an.

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Most US Republicans sympathetic to Christian nationalism, survey finds

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Survey also finds that 29% of white evangelical Protestants qualify as nationalism adherents while 35% qualify as sympathizers

Two-thirds of white evangelicals and most Republicans are sympathetic to Christian nationalism, a new survey has found.

According to a national survey released on Wednesday by the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution, 29% of white evangelical Protestants qualify as Christian nationalism adherents while 35% qualify as sympathizers.

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Former Andalucían bar confirmed as lost medieval synagogue

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City of Utrera’s mayor heralds ‘extraordinary’ proof that building is part of legacy of Spain’s exiled Jews

Archaeologists in the Andalucían city of Utrera have rediscovered a staggeringly rare Spanish medieval synagogue, which was later used over the course of seven centuries as everything from a hospital and a home for abandoned children to a restaurant and disco-pub.

The find, announced on Tuesday, makes the 14th-century building one of a precious handful of medieval synagogues to have survived the aftermath of the expulsion of Spain’s Jews in 1492.

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Vatican expels ‘rebel nuns’ for refusing to leave Italian monastery

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Two nuns told they ‘disobeyed the church’ by trying to stay at seven-centuries-old site in Ravello

The Vatican has expelled two cloistered sisters from the nunhood after the pair disobeyed a request to leave a seven-centuries-old monastery along Italy’s Amalfi coast.

Known in the clifftop town of Ravello as “the rebel nuns”, Massimiliana Panza and Angela Maria Punnackal left the Santa Chiara monastery on Saturday after receiving a letter signed by Pope Francis telling them they were being relieved of “the obligations of sacred ordination”.

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Pope urges churches in South Sudan to raise voices against injustice

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Pontiff says on peace mission that religious leaders ‘cannot remain neutral’ amid abuses of power

Pope Francis has said churches in South Sudan “cannot remain neutral” but must raise their voices against injustice and abuse of power, as he and two other Christian leaders conducted a peace mission to the world’s newest country.

On his first full day in South Sudan, Francis addressed Catholic bishops, priests and nuns in St Theresa Cathedral in the capital, Juba, as the archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland held services elsewhere.

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George Pell funeral: hundreds protest outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney

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LGBTQ+ protesters condemn cardinal’s record on same-sex marriage, women’s rights and protecting children from clergy abuse

Hundreds of people have marched in protest outside Cardinal George Pell’s funeral service at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, with heated exchanges between his detractors and admirers.

Campaign group Community Action for Rainbow Rights (Carr) planned the protest through Sydney to the cathedral on the day of Pell’s requiem mass, in condemnation of his opposition to same-sex marriage and women’s rights, and his failure to protect children from widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

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Help world’s poor as well as Ukraine, say faith charities as pope visits South Sudan

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An open letter, backed by opinion poll, urges the UK to restore aid budget on eve of a three-day ‘pilgrimage for peace’ in the east African country

The British government’s financial support for Ukraine must not be at the cost of aid to other areas of the world in crisis, three faith-based charities have warned, on the eve of an unprecedented joint pilgrimage to South Sudan led by Pope Francis.

The organisations are calling on the government to restore the 59% cut in the UK’s aid budget to South Sudan, and invest in peacebuilding, conflict management and reconciliation.

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George Pell funeral: Tony Abbott praises cardinal as a ‘saint for our times’ and rails against child abuse charges

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Former PM says the cardinal was ‘the greatest man I’ve ever known’, likening his treatment to a ‘modern-day crucifixion’

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has described George Pell, a man found to have failed to act on knowledge of child abuse, as “the greatest man I’ve ever known”, likening him to a saint and comparing his treatment to “modern-day crucifixion”.

Abbott spoke at Pell’s funeral on Thursday and variously described him as “one of our country’s greatest sons”, a “great hero” and a “saint for our times”.

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Pope and Justin Welby to visit South Sudan amid tensions over LGBTQ+ rights

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Head of Anglican church in South Sudan said archbishop of Canterbury was ‘failing to defend biblical truth’

Pope Francis and the archbishop of Canterbury will begin a historic joint visit to South Sudan on Friday against the backdrop of potential tensions over LGBTQ+ rights.

The leaders of the global Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, whose numbers are growing in sub-Saharan Africa in contrast to the west, will be joined on their “pilgrimage of peace” by the leader of the Church of Scotland.

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