Pell and the pollies

How can this hold? Just because many people have rejected religion does not make our world any more secular. For millennia decisions of individuals in governments around the world have made calls that are in some way informed by religion. We are venturing on an untravelled path that takes us away from any religious impact on society.

The scary thing is that proponents of that path seem to be so vehement about everyone taking it. In fact, what they argue in this case is that if you aren’t on the path, you should get off and stop influencing others with your point of view. How hypocritical.

The amazing thing about Catholics is that a single faith with very specific beliefs can be spread all over the world and be so popular in diverse cultures. But the dumbfounding aspect of this episode is that many Catholics, especially in the developed world, distance themselves from the authority of the Church, disregard Church teaching and then spread to others their apparently “Catholic” viewpoints. I think that if I was a senior member of the Church I would be very keen to speak out to distance the Church from those people.

Catholic means “universal”. But that doesn’t mean a universal collection of standards and ideals, it means a universal spread of people with belief in one Christian faith.

Pell is no Caesaropapist. This is another example of how confused many are about the doctrine of separation of Church and State. Pell is quite in his own right to speak publicly about the teachings of his Church and the fact that people need to consider their commitments to that Church if they follow certain paths of action. Nothing political about that.