Religious leaders urge all to reject darkness in Christmas messages

Embrace light and look for the good in others, say pope and archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster

The pope has said that “darkness in human hearts” results in religious persecution, social injustice, armed conflicts and fear of migrants.

In his Christmas Day message to the world, Pope Francis said: “There is darkness in human hearts, yet the light of Christ is greater still. There is darkness in economic, geopolitical and ecological conflicts, yet greater still is the light of Christ.”

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Brexit discourse contributed to death of Jo Cox, says bishop

Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, says damaging rhetoric has harmed society as a whole

The Church of England’s first black female bishop has said the debate around Brexit damaged society and contributed to the death of the MP Jo Cox.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the former chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, said the arguments around Brexit had had a harmful effect both on parliamentarians and on society as a whole.

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Mexican Catholic group says late leader Marcial Maciel abused at least 60 minors

Leader of ultra-conservative group was ordered to retire over allegations, but died before facing accusers

Sexual abuse of minors was rife among superiors of the Legionaries of Christ Catholic religious order, with at least 60 boys abused by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel, a report by the group revealed.

Maciel, who died in 2008, was perhaps the Roman Catholic Church’s most notorious paedophile, even abusing children he had fathered secretly with at least two women while living a double life and being feted by the Vatican and church conservatives.

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Deadly clashes in India as protests take place across country – video

Police and protesters have clashed across India and six people died during standoffs on Friday in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where tensions exploded between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.

Thousands of protesters have been demonstrating since 11 December in several parts of the country to oppose a new law championed by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, which makes it easier for people from non-Muslim minorities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who settled in India prior to 2015 to obtain Indian citizenship


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India clamps down on citizenship law protests

Critics say Narendra Modi’s Citizenship Amendment Act ‘has declared war on Muslims’

Authorities have imposed an emergency law banning large gatherings in parts of India’s capital, Delhi, as nationwide protests escalated, injuring police and demonstrators.

A week after a controversial new citizenship law was passed by parliament, which has been accused of openly discriminating against Muslims, protests across the country showed no sign of abating.

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Women protect unarmed man from police beating in India student protests – video

Women form human shield around man in New Delhi and shout 'go back, go back' as officers attempt to beat him with sticks. Protests have erupted across India against law to fast-track citizenship for everyone except Muslim asylum seekers

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India protests: students condemn ‘barbaric’ police

Anger grows across country at new law which denies citizenship to Muslim migrants

Students in Delhi have condemned their “barbaric” treatment at the hands of police who stormed a peaceful protest against the new citizenship bill over the weekend, injuring dozens.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, students who were caught up in Sunday’s protest at Delhi’s predominately Muslim Jamia Millia Islamia University – which turned violent after police descended on the campus firing teargas and rubber bullets and beating demonstrators with batons – said it had turned into a “battlefield”.

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India citizenship law: shock at crackdown may unite Modi opponents

Protests are most significant show of dissent in nearly six years of Modi in power

Student protests are not unusual in India. Nor is police violence. But the scenes of officers entering one of Delhi’s Muslim-majority universities, teargassing the library and beating demonstrators and bystanders have shocked a country thought to have become inured to both.

Fuelled by the apparent police brutality, protests against a controversial law to fast-track citizenship for everyone but Muslim asylum seekers were spreading on Monday to other major universities and cities across the country, in what is becoming the most significant show of dissent in the nearly six years since Narendra Modi took office.

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Indian police fire teargas at citizenship bill protesters

Paramilitary forces deployed at demonstrations in north-east over bill excluding Muslims

Indian police have fired blanks on protesters as thousands ignored a curfew in the north-east of the country in fresh demonstrations against contentious new citizenship legislation.

Officials said on Thursday about 20 to 30 people have been hurt in the protests in recent days, with vehicles torched and police firing teargas and charging the crowds with heavy wooden sticks.

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Indian citizenship law discriminatory to Muslims passed

Bill will allow refugees from nearby states to become Indian but not if they are Muslims

Indian lawmakers have approved legislation granting citizenship to migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – but not if they are Muslim. Critics of the government said the legislation undermines the country’s secular constitution, as protests against the law intensified in some parts of the country.

The citizenship amendment bill seeks to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled the three countries before 2015.

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The Coalition’s religious discrimination bill: what’s changed and can doctors refuse treatment?

The new bill is designed to respond to a revolt from conservative religious organisations that forced the Coalition to miss its self-imposed deadline

On 10 December, Scott Morrison and the attorney general, Christian Porter, released the second draft religious discrimination bill.

The new bill is designed to respond to a revolt from conservative religious organisations that forced the Coalition to miss its self-imposed deadline to introduce the bill to parliament by year’s end.

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Academic quits C of E body over chief rabbi’s Labour antisemitism comments

Gus John lambasts Justin Welby’s support amid church’s ‘woeful’ record on racism

A leading campaigner against racism has resigned from a Church of England advisory body in protest at the archbishop of Canterbury’s support for the chief rabbi’s comments last week on antisemitism in the Labour party.

Gus John, a respected author and academic, said: “As a matter of principle, I cannot continue to work with the Anglican church … after the archbishop of Canterbury’s disgraceful endorsement of the chief rabbi’s unjust condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn and the entire Labour party.”

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World’s largest ritual animal slaughter goes ahead despite ban

Thousands of Hindus head to southern Nepal for festival honouring goddess of power

Thousands of Hindus have gathered in southern Nepal before a festival believed to be the world’s largest ritual animal slaughter, despite court orders and calls by animal activists to end the event.

The sacrifices, set to begin on Tuesday, take place every five years in the village of Bariyarpur close to the Indian border, in honour of the Hindu goddess of power.

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Catholic priests in Argentina sentenced to 45 years for child abuse

Court convicts two priests and former gardener at school for deaf students on counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors

A court in Argentina has convicted two Roman Catholic priests and the former gardener of a church-run school for deaf students on 28 counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors, in a case that has shaken the church in Pope Francis’s homeland.

A three-judge panel in the city of Mendoza sentenced Nicola Corradi to 42 years and Horacio Corbacho to 45 years for abusing children at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Lujan de Cuyo, a municipality in north-western Argentina.

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India: Muslim Sanskrit professor forced to flee by Hindu students

Feroz Khan in hiding after nationalist group protested he ‘cannot teach us our religion’

A Muslim scholar of Sanskrit has gone into hiding after protests from some rightwing Hindu students claiming that, as a Muslim, he cannot teach Sanskrit, the ancient classical language of Hinduism.

Feroz Khan, 29, was the unanimous choice of a selection committee at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi for the post of assistant professor of Sanskrit literature. The committee members were impressed with his erudition, which stems from a childhood passion for the language that continued into further education.

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Scott Morrison condemns Israel Folau for linking bushfires to same-sex marriage and abortion

Former Wallabies player’s comments in sermon follow controversy over his sacking for social media posts

Scott Morrison has labelled comments by sacked rugby union star Israel Folau linking devastating bushfires to Australia passing laws to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage “appallingly insensitive”.

Although both the prime minister and the Labor leader Anthony Albanese defended Folau’s right to express the view, condemnation on Monday was swift and bipartisan.

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George Pell high court appeal: cardinal granted final challenge against child sexual abuse conviction

Full bench of seven judges will decide on Cardinal Pell’s appeal, likely to be heard in 2020

Cardinal George Pell will have a final chance to overturn his conviction on historical child sexual abuse offences after the high court in Canberra agreed to hear appeal arguments in a special full court sitting.

A date for the appeal hearing is yet to be set but it is likely to be early in 2020, by the full bench of seven judges. Led by the high-profile silk Bret Walker SC, Pell’s legal team will argue that the majority of judges in Victoria’s court of appeal erred by finding in August that jurors were not unreasonable to believe the testimony of Pell’s victim.

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Donald Trump plans to make foreign aid conditional on religious freedom

President wants to apportion aid based on how countries treat religious minorities

White House officials are reportedly drafting plans to make US foreign aid conditional on how countries treat their religious minorities, in an effort that is seen as a sop to Christian evangelicals in Donald Trump’s base.

The move, which threatens to impose further constraints on a US foreign aid policy already heavily restricted under the Trump administration, was first reported by Politico after briefings from White House aides.

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Ayodhya: India’s top court awards disputed religious site to Hindus – video report

India’s supreme court has ruled that a Hindu temple can be built on the country’s most hotly contested religious site, ending a legal dispute that has run for decades between Hindus and Muslims.

The restoration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a key pledge of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government. The ruling, which came just six months after his landslide election win, is another huge victory for India’s prime minister

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