Australian Cardinal Threatens Disobedient Catholic Politicians

This article comes from the Catholic News Agency.
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Cardinal Pell corrects politicians who claim to be Catholic but vote differently

Sydney, Australia, Jan 5, 2011 / 05:31 am (CNA).- As the country faces intense legislative debate this upcoming year over same-sex “marriage” and euthanasia, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney blasted politicians who claim a Catholic identity, yet consistently defy Church teachings on major issues.

In a Jan. 4 interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, Cardinal Pell gave a sharp rebuke to Australian members of parliament who "fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag" but "blithely disregard Christian perspectives" in their actions.

"If a person says, 'Look, I'm not a Christian, I've a different set of perspectives,' I disagree but I understand," he said. "If a person says to me, 'Look, I'm nominally a Christian but it sits lightly with me,' I understand that.”

"But it's incongruous for somebody to be a Captain Catholic one minute, saying they're as good a Catholic as the Pope, then regularly voting against the established Christian traditions."

Cardinal Pell called out politicians who endorse secular stances on issues while insisting that they're Catholics, saying, “if you're espousing something that's not a Christian position, don't claim Christian backing for that."

The Catholic Church “doesn't teach the primacy of conscience,” he said, explaining that a person's conscience doesn't trump Church teaching. “You know if somebody said apartheid was all right, nobody would say, 'Yes you can say that because of the primacy of conscience.'"

"To the extent that on a significant number of issues you depart from Christian teachings you know it's incongruous to be billing yourself as a champion of Christian rights,” he said.

"I'm not telling people how to vote," he underscored during the interview. "I'm telling people how I think they should vote. I'm an Australian citizen and I have as much right to do that as any other citizen."

Guam Archbishop Urges to Vote with "Catholic Conscience"

This article comes from the Catholic News Agency.

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Hagatna, Guam, Aug 31, 2010 / 02:56 am (CNA).- Writing to Catholics before Guam's upcoming primary elections, Archbishop Anthony Apuron stressed to the country's faithful that “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”

Archbishop Apuron of the Archdiocese of of Agana issued his statement on Aug. 27 in time for Guam's primary elections, which will be held on Sept. 4.

“We are called to participate in the upcoming elections of our local leaders for the positions of Governor and Lt. Governor, Senator, Attorney General, and Delegate to the U.S. House of Representative,” the prelate explained. “As we exercise our civic duties, we are faced with issues that affect the common good of the People of Guam.”

Regarding the faithful's civic duty to vote, the archbishop then highlighted “non-negotiable” positions that the Catholic Church holds in five areas of concern: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human closing [sic] and same-sex unions.

Speaking on abortion, Archbishop Apuron called the procedure the “intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.”

“The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of this life,” he underscored. “Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s who should not suffer death for others' sins.”

On the issue of same-sex unions, Archbishop Apuron stressed that marriage “is the union of one man and one woman.”  

“Legal recognition of any other union as ‘marriage’ undermines true marriage,” he noted. “Any legal recognition of same-sex union actually does individuals with tendencies for same sex a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.”

The archbishop also addressed Catholic lawmakers, telling them they have “a moral duty to express their opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against same-sex union. To vote in for, or advocate such action, is harmful to the common good and is gravely immoral.”

Addressing euthanasia, the archbishop called the act “homicide.” “No person has the right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person,” he wrote. “In euthanasia, the sick or elderly are killed by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion or misguided mercy.” “True compassion,” he stated, “cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person.”

The prelate then urged Catholics to “not vote for the candidates who are right on lesser issues but who will vote contrary to the Church teachings on key moral issues.” 

In his concluding remarks, Archbishop Apuron told the faithful to “participate and exercise your civic duties as Catholic voters and make known your position by selecting the candidates who are willing to be accountable towards the common good of the People of Guam.”

Benedict and the Buddha: Ecological Partners

This article comes from Asia News.

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Christians and Buddhists share "ecological responsibility" and respect for life, Vatican says

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Christians and Buddhists can improve their co-operation in order to “encourage efforts to create a sense of ecological responsibility, while at the same time reaffirming our shared convictions about the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one learns to love one’s neighbour and to respect nature.” This goal is at the centre of a message released by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on the occasion of the Buddhist festivity of Vesakh.

For Buddhists, this is the most important day for it commemorates the key moments in the life of the Buddha. This year, celebrations will take place in Korea and Taiwan on 21 May, in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, Laos, Nepal and Vietnam on 28 May. In Japan, they were held on 8 March. The message was translated in simplified and traditional Chinese as well as Japanese and Korean.

Titled “Christians and Buddhists respect Human Life as the Basis of Respect for All Beings,” the message is co-signed by the president of the Pontifical council, Card Jean-Louis Tauran, and its secretary, Mgr Pier Luigi Celata. It hopes that “existing bonds of friendship and collaboration in service to humanity” can become stronger.

“Let us take this opportunity,” the message reads, “to reflect together on a theme of particular relevance today, namely, the environmental crisis that has already caused notable hardship and suffering throughout the world. The efforts of both of our communities to engage in interreligious dialogue have brought about a new awareness of the social and spiritual importance of our respective religious traditions in this area. We recognize that we hold in common a regard for values like respect for the nature of all things, contemplation, humility, simplicity, compassion, and generosity. These values contribute to a life of nonviolence, equilibrium, and contentment with sufficiency.”

“Pope Benedict XVI, has noted that ‘the various phenomena of environmental degradation and natural disasters… remind us of the urgent need to respect nature as we should, and to recover and value a correct relationship with the environment in everyday life’ (General Audience, 26 August 2009). The Catholic Church considers the protection of the environment as intimately linked to the theme of integral human development; and for her part, she is committed not only to promoting the protection of land, water and air as gifts destined for everyone, but also to encouraging others to join the efforts to protect mankind from self-destruction. Our responsibility to protect nature springs, in fact, from our respect for one another; it comes from the law inscribed in the hearts of all men and women. Consequently, when human ecology is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits (cf Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, n. 51).”

Lastly, “Both Christians and Buddhists have a profound respect for human life. It is crucial therefore that we encourage efforts to create a sense of ecological responsibility, while at the same time reaffirming our shared convictions about the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one learns to love one’s neighbour and to respect nature.”

Australian Bishops Pressure Government on Refugees

This news release from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference comes from Catholic News.

It is clear that the Vatican's latest pro-immigration push is a worldwide one.
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Media Release
10 May, 2010

Bishops call on government to show compassionate leadership on asylum seekers
 
Refugees are desperate human beings who have suffered great trauma. As a nation, we are called to respond with justice and compassion say the Catholic Bishops of Australia.
 
This week, as the Catholic Bishops of Australia meet in Sydney, they have called on the government to lift the suspension of processing for Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
 
The Bishops call on all sides of politics to show positive leadership on refugee policy, “Mandatory detention, especially in remote places such as Christmas Island and Curtin RAAF base, as the government indicates, is a costly exercise that adds to the trauma already endured by people seeking asylum. It also creates stress for staff who are doing what they can under difficult circumstances”, the Bishops said.

“Political leaders have a particular responsibility to avoid demonizing or stereotyping asylum seekers.

“While aware of the complexities of the issue and the challenges presented, but conscious of the need to avoid using asylum seekers being used as political capital, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference asks political parties to confer in order to formulate a policy on the treatment of asylum seekers that does justice to their human dignity”, they said.

“Australia is not being inundated by people seeking asylum. In fact we receive only a small proportion of the world’s displaced people. The greatest burden in giving shelter to refugees is borne by countries that are far poorer and more crowded than Australia”, the Bishops said.
 
“Australia was among the first nations to sign the refugee convention and has benefited from the energy and enterprise of 750,000 refugees since federation.
 
“We should keep faith with this history. In the past, Australia has established humane and constructive policies towards asylum seekers – for example, during the 1980s when boat people were fleeing from Vietnam and Cambodia.
 
“That past reveals that Australia can rise above its current response to once more act with compassion and justice towards these vulnerable people”, the Bishops said.

Australian Government Considers New Abuse Laws

This article comes from the Australian Daily Telegraph.

I think we will see more and more countries considering laws that will hold the Catholic church legally accountable for sexual abuse. As it currently stands, the church and its priests are often shielded behind religious freedom and laws specifically designed to protect ecclesiastical assets.
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Justice for Sex Abuse Victims

By Janet Fife-Yeomans

RADICAL laws that would deliver justice to thousands of victims of sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and teachers are being considered by the Keneally Government.

The Catholic Church would no longer be able to hide behind a 2007 court ruling that they cannot be sued because they only own the church property and do not employ the clergy or teachers.

Attorney-General John Hatzistergos is also considering a temporary moratorium for child sex abuse victims from the state's brutal statute of limitations, which blocks claims more than three years old.

Victims currently face long and expensive legal fights which often fail to have that statute waived.

The influential Australian Lawyers Alliance has called on the Government to repeal the Roman Catholic Trust Property Act of 1936 which the courts have ruled protects the church in most cases from claims of negligence involving paedophile priests.

A spokesperson for Mr Hatzistergos said the Attorney-General was looking at that request.

In 2007, the Court of Appeal found in a test case brought by former altar boy John Ellis, now a solicitor, that he had no one to sue over sexual assaults by the late Father Duggan at Bass Hill.

The court ruled that under the 1936 Act, the trustees of the church, who control the billions of dollars of church real estate including retirement homes and charities, are only liable for property matters and cannot be held liable for negligence of their priests in churches or teachers in Roman Catholic parochial schools.

The High Court refused Mr Ellis leave to appeal.

Australian Lawyers Alliance NSW spokesman Dr Andrew Morrison SC said it was outrageous a ch