Weekend Wrap for 8 December 2024

Decades of clergy sex abuse scandals are an "existential threat" to the Catholic Church and can only be remedied through transparency and prioritizing survivors, according to the outgoing Australian ambassador to the Vatican. "Clerical abuse has resulted in lost credibility, a mounting devotional crisis and, it would not be hyperbolic to say, a real existential threat for the Catholic Church," said Ambassador Chiara Porro. In particular, Porro challenged the familiar narrative that abuse is the result of a few "bad apples," instead of the result of serious structural problems. "The key to accepting the dimension of the problem is acknowledging that there is a collective component to wrongful practices," she countered. "Large-scale, widespread, reiterated failures can never be solely attributable to individual misconduct. They are supported by organizational structures, hierarchies and power differences." (2 Dec 2024)
Read more at NCR Online

High-profile conservative Catholic lawyers have warned the Australian Catholic University it faces losing its religious designation if it fails to defend the faith as church leaders split with university bosses in the fallout from an anti-abortion speech on campus. The warning follows a furious, six-page letter to ACU from Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, who raised concerns about the ambivalence of the university’s commitment to its Catholic identity. Simmering tensions over how an institution funded by taxpayers but overseen by the church should handle conflicts between church ideology and secular beliefs boiled over in October after a speech by former trade union heavyweight Joe de Bruyn at an ACU graduation in Melbourne. (3 Dec 2024)
Read more at The Age

Church groups are signing up for federal funds to build homes for people in need and fill a gap in the broader housing market, prompting the government to offer them more cash if they are willing to release land that has been unused for decades. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told faith leaders on Tuesday that they stood to gain a bigger share of a $10 billion federal housing fund if they followed the example of Baptists and other churches by using their land for emergency accommodation. The government set up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) after months of objections from the Coalition and the Greens, although it was eventually passed with the Greens’ backing in September last year. The government has said at least $500 million a year in interest earned on the fund would be used to help build 30,000 social and affordable homes in the first five years. (3 Dec 2024)
Read more at The Age

The Victorian Premier’s own department believes the proposed changes to the Census religion question will have a positive impact in fostering greater inclusion of non-religious people. As part of phase 2 of the Australia Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2026 Census topic consultation, the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet identified the “assumption of religiosity” as a problem in the existing question. When asked to describe possible positive impacts of introducing a two-part question, the department said: “A two-part question will remove the assumption of religiosity and will foster wider inclusion of people who are not religious from the outset, while retaining critical data needs about Australia’s religious communities.” The consultation process demonstrated overwhelming public support for changing the religion question. (4 Dec 2024)
Read more at the Census21 website

A widening of coercive control laws to cover groups such as cults and changes to the tax breaks afforded to religious organisations are among reforms proposed after the exposure of extreme teachings at a secretive Australian church. Former members of the hardline Geelong Revival Centre want criminal coercive control laws, which predominantly target domestic violence, expanded to include extreme religious sects and high-demand groups. Tore Klevjer, president of volunteer group Cult and Family Information Support, said coercive control was a common feature of cult abuse and states needed to protect vulnerable people. (5 Dec 2024)
Read more at The Age

As the Jewish community comes to terms with the arson attack on a Melbourne Synagogue, Australian politicians have been quick to condemn the incident. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has pledged $100,000 towards the rebuilding of the Synagogue. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that "to attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values." (6 Dec 2024)
Listen to this segment at ABC PM

The introduction of secular wellbeing support workers into the Royal Australian Navy has delivered a “complementary non-religious alternative” helping to meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of personnel, says the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal (DFRT). In a formal statement published late last month, the DFRT – an independent authority – said it was apparent that demand for the support from the secular workers, known as Maritime Spiritual Wellbeing Officers (MSWOs), was strong. The outcome will increase pressure on the Army and Air Force to follow Navy’s lead in providing a non-religious frontline wellbeing option for their personnel. Despite promises to review their religious-based pastoral care capability, Army and Air Force continue to provide only religious chaplains – and, increasingly, Pentecostal and evangelical Christian chaplains. (7 Dec 2024)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia