Austria's Lutheran Church appoints first female bishop
A woman is set to head the Lutheran Church in Austria for the first time.
Cornelia Richter, a 54-year-old professor of theology, was elected on Friday as the Protestant church's first female bishop at a synod in Vienna.
Richter, who teaches at the University of Bonn in Germany, was the only candidate. She will take office on January 1 next year.
Like her predecessor, who is retiring for age reasons, Richter wants to campaign for the reintroduction of Good Friday as a public holiday in Austria.
She had previously stated that she intends to give up her teaching position in Bonn.
With just over 237,000 members, the Protestant Lutheran Church is one of the less prominent denominations in Austria.
There are around 4.5 million Catholics in the Alpine republic, followed by sizeable communities of Muslims and Orthodox Christians.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
France probes terror motive after man shoots dead Tunisian neighbour
French prosecutors Monday were probing a terror motive after a man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbour and badly wounded a Turkish man in the south of the country. The shooting late Saturday in Puget-sur-Argens in the southern region of Var came after a Malian man was stabbed to death in April in a mosque, also in southern France, as concern grows over hate crimes against Muslims. The shooting was initially investigated by regional prosecutors as a suspected murder motivated by the victim's ethnicity or religion. But French national anti-terror prosecutors, known by their French acronym PNAT, announced Monday that they would be taking over the investigation. The suspect wanted to "disrupt public order through terror", according to a source close to the case. The suspected killer, a Frenchman born in 1971, fled the scene in a car but was arrested not far away after his partner alerted police. He posted videos with racist content before and after the shooting late on Saturday, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier. The victim, who was born in 1979, was shot five times. The Turkish national was wounded in the hand and hospitalised, the prosecutor said. - 'Swore allegiance to French flag' - A sports shooting enthusiast, the suspect "posted two videos on his social media account containing racist and hateful content before and after his attack," the prosecutor added. According to French daily Le Parisien, the suspect said he "swore allegiance to the French flag" and called on the French to "shoot" people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on Facebook. The PNAT prosecutors said Monday that they had opened an investigation into a "terrorist plot" motivated by the race or religion of the victims. "The racist nature of this double crime is beyond doubt, given the hateful remarks made by the killer," said SOS Racisme, an anti-discrimination NGO. "This tragedy echoes a series of racist crimes that have occurred in recent months," it said, denouncing a "poisonous climate" in the country including the "trivialisation of racist rhetoric". Aboubakar Cisse of Mali was stabbed dozens of times while attending prayers at the mosque in the southern French town of La Grand-Combe on April 25. A French national of Bosnian origin accused of carrying out the attack surrendered to Italian authorities after three days on the run. Italy then extradited him to France to face justice. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was bitterly criticised for never travelling to the scene of that crime to show solidarity, while PNAT anti-terror prosecutors also came under fire for not taking over the case and instead leaving it to regular criminal prosecutors. On Monday, Retailleau denounced the murder of a Tunisian man, calling it a "racist act". "Racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and we can see that it is a poison that kills," Retailleau told reporters. "Every racist act is an anti-French act." He added that he had spoken on the phone with the Tunisian ambassador to France. vxm-dac-sjw-as/rmb
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
A man is convicted and fined for burning a copy of the Quran in London
LONDON (AP) — A man who burned a copy of the Quran and shouted 'Islam is religion of terrorism' outside the Turkish consulate in London was convicted Monday of a religiously aggravated public order offense and fined. Free speech campaign groups raised concerns that his conviction was against the freedom of expression and vowed to appeal. Hamit Coskun, 50, shouted 'f(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk) Islam' while holding a burning Quran aloft outside the Turkish consulate on Feb. 13. He argued in court that he had protested peacefully. District Judge John McGarva said his conduct was 'provocative and taunting" and likely to have caused harassment, alarm or distress, and that it was 'motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims.' 'Burning a religious book, although offensive to some, is not necessarily disorderly," the judge said. 'What made his conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language.' Prosecutors said that Coskun, originally from Turkey, had posted on social media that he was protesting against the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who Coskun alleged 'has made Turkey a base for radical Islamists." He was fined 240 pounds ($325). The National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union, which paid for Coskun's legal fees, said the conviction jeopardized freedom of expression and that they intend to appeal 'and keep on appealing it until it's overturned." They said they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. In a statement issued through the Free Speech Union, Coskun said 'it cannot be right to prosecute someone for blaspheming against Islam.' 'This decision is an assault on free speech and will deter others from exercising their democratic rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression," he said. 'As an activist, I will continue to campaign against the threat of Islam." Robert Jenrick, from the opposition Conservative Party, said on social media platform X that the ruling 'revives a blasphemy law" that Parliament repealed in 2008 following a campaign by secularists. Dave Pares, spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, told reporters: 'We have no blasphemy laws in England and there are no plans to introduce any."
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Man convicted over Koran-burning in London says ruling is assault on free speech
A man who burned a Koran outside the Turkish consulate in London has branded his prosecution 'an assault on free speech' as campaigners argued the ruling 'signals a concerning capitulation to Islamic blasphemy codes'. Hamit Coskun was found guilty on Monday of a religiously aggravated public order offence, having shouted 'f*** Islam', 'Islam is religion of terrorism' and 'Koran is burning' while holding the flaming religious text aloft earlier this year. The 50-year-old had argued his criticism was of Islam in general rather than its followers, but District Judge John McGarva said he could not accept this, finding that Coskun's actions were 'highly provocative' and that he was 'motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims'. Coskun was convicted at Westminster Magistrates' Court of a religiously aggravated public order offence of using disorderly behaviour 'within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress', motivated by 'hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam', contrary to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section five of the Public Order Act 1986. Turkey-born Coskun, who is half-Kurdish and half-Armenian, travelled from his home in the Midlands to carry out the act in Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, on February 13 and in court argued he had protested peacefully and burning the Koran amounted to freedom of expression. His legal fees are being paid by the National Secular Society (NSS) and the Free Speech Union (FSU), both of which criticised the ruling and said they intend to appeal 'and keep on appealing it until it's overturned'. In a statement issued through the FSU, Coskun said: 'This decision is an assault on free speech and will deter others from exercising their democratic rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression. 'As an activist, I will continue to campaign against the threat of Islam. 'Christian blasphemy laws were repealed in this country more than 15 years ago and it cannot be right to prosecute someone for blaspheming against Islam. Would I have been prosecuted if I'd set fire to a copy of the bible outside Westminster Abbey? I doubt it.'
