Sydney's Cardinal Pell Threatens Catholic MPs.

[Matilda]

In a move that is unprecedented in Australia in modern times, Sydney's Archbishop, Cardinal George
Pell, has threatened Catholic MPs about to vote on a bill that will allow stem-cell research, with
"consequences" should they support it. This has generally been taken to be an oblique threat to
excommunicate those MPs who vote in favour of the bill.

As anyone with any intelligence would have guessed, the threatened MPs have responded by giving the
Cardinal the finger (or "the bird" I think Americans would say). The Cardinal has every right to
put the Church's viewpoint to the Parliament, but if Catholic MPs were seen to be influenced by the
Church on the way they vote on any bill, their political careers would be ruined.

The Cardinal is also being completely hypocritical - he has in the past denounced the Muslim cleric,
Sheik al-Hilaly (a raving dingbat) for his anti-Western sentiments, and should the Sheik ever attempt
to influence politicians, nobody would scream louder than George Pell.

Pell is in fact almost universally disliked by Sydney Catholics - I know more than one priest who
openly criticises his thinking and his methods. Sometimes when we're preparing the liturgy for a
special feast, somebody will say with glee "George will HATE that!"

Far from bringing the many Catholic MPs into line - the vote on the bill will be a conscience vote,
i.e. not conducted along Party lines - the Cardinal will be left with egg on his face. Had he not
overplayed his hand by open threats, but quietly called Catholic MPs into his office to put the
Church's position and then left it to individual consciences - well, he might not made any difference
to the outcome, but at least he wouldn't look like a fool

And the media are having a field day with the story:

"THE Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, could be compared to "that serial boofhead Sheik al Hilaly", the NSW cabinet minister Nathan Rees has said in an explosive speech in Parliament.

Mr Rees, a Catholic, accused him of "emotional blackmail" for warning that Catholic MPs faced "consequences" in their religious lives if they supported a bill that would expand stem cell research."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pell-as-bad-as-boofhead-hilaly/2007/06/06/1181089151633.html

[hedgehog]

1. Is this the same archbishop who shut down or tried to shut down

the parish that was reaching out to Australia's native peoples?

[Matilda]

2. The very same.

And the battle with the Neocats at Sydney's Redfern Parish continues.

"Archbishop George Pell has accused the parishioners of St Vincent's Catholic Church in Redfern of "sad and shameful attitudes" and mounting a "program of intimidation, harassment and disturbance" on holy occasions.

But parishioners say Cardinal Pell has appointed conservative priests insistent on "imposing an alien and hostile form of religion and liturgical worship" and has ignored their pleas to intervene.

Parishioners have taken their complaints against the priests of the Spanish-based Neocatechumenal Way to the Vatican.

They say the priests have called Aborigines heathens, subjected churchgoers, particularly women, to bullying and verbal abuse, and withheld Holy Communion."

http://church-mouse.lanuera.com/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=655&Itemid=853

[hedgehog]

3. Not to be age-ist, but how old is Cardinal Pell? I'm wondering if he's his

own man anymore or just a figure head for someone else.

[Matilda]

4. Pell is 66.

Very much his own man, as far as that goes. Fit-looking and appears younger than his years - you'd
guess mid-50s to look at him.

He just seems to be very old-school, hardline Catholic. He has been quoted, in relation to Redfern,
as saying that the Church is not into social work, but saving souls. That's rather outdated these
days, and particularly in Redfern, which is a predominantly Aboriginal community, with problems of
alcoholism, broken families, malnutrition, and crime to contend with. Fr. Ted Kennedy understood
that minds and bodies needed to healed in order to save souls, but Pell just doesn't agree with that
view, and sent-in the Neocats to lay down the law in Redfern. The result is that the Aboriginal
community, which was devoted to Fr. Kennedy, are now drifting away from the Church again, but Pell
seems unable to connect the dots.

I think his problem is lack of imagination - he deals with the strict law of the Church, untempered
by wisdom or understanding. If you don't go by the book, you'll burn in hell.

[DemBones DemBones]

I've read allegations that there was a

communist conspiracy to infiltrate the Catholic priesthood and that some of those men were in place by the time of Vatican II, with more being recruited up through the Seventies, at least.

The communists wanted to destroy the Church because it was such a strong enemy of communism back in the Forties and Fifties, according to the story.

It would certainly explain some of the absurd behavior some priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals exhibit, and perhaps some of the strange things John Paul II did and Benedict XVI has done (though some of their strange acts could be due to old age and health problems; B-16 has had strokes, after all.) It often seems as if many of the clergy are trying to destroy the Church.

The revelations about Polish bishops and archbishops being secret informers for Poland's previous communist govt lend credence to the story -- and make one wonder if JP II was really anti-communist.

The world gets stranger by the day.

Pell's treatment of the Aboriginals who are Catholic is a disgrace.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. I've read allegations that there was a

communist conspiracy to infiltrate the Catholic priesthood and that some of those men were in place by the time of Vatican II, with more being recruited up through the Seventies, at least.

The communists wanted to destroy the Church because it was such a strong enemy of communism back in the Forties and Fifties, according to the story.

It would certainly explain some of the absurd behavior some priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals exhibit, and perhaps some of the strange things John Paul II did and Benedict XVI has done (though some of their strange acts could be due to old age and health problems; B-16 has had strokes, after all.) It often seems as if many of the clergy are trying to destroy the Church.

The revelations about Polish bishops and archbishops being secret informers for Poland's previous communist govt lend credence to the story -- and make one wonder if JP II was really anti-communist.

The world gets stranger by the day.

Pell's treatment of the Aboriginals who are Catholic is a disgrace.