Australia’s Cardinal Pell blasts Catholic politicians who defy Church teaching

by Thaddeus Baklinski

SYDNEY, January 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a short interview with the Herald Sun on January 2, Cardinal George Pell called on Catholic politicians to uphold Christian teachings, and blasted MPs who “fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag” but “blithely disregard Christian perspectives” when facing a vote on moral issues in parliament.

Cardinal Pell explained that while a politician may cite primacy of conscience in support of certain views, “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. And the Catholic Church doesn’t teach the primacy of conscience. You know if somebody said apartheid was all right, nobody would say, ‘Yes you can say that because of the primacy of conscience’.”

The Cardinal went on to say that he understands a non-Christian or even nominally-Christian’s perspective on moral issues may differ from Church teaching: “If a person says, ‘Look, I’m not a Christian, I’ve a different set of perspectives’, I disagree but I understand.”

“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.” the Archbishop of Sydney said.

Cardinal Pell also addressed the move by Greens Party leader Bob Brown to have a pro-euthanasia Bill passed by the Federal Parliament, saying he believes the measure would fail.

“I’m not telling people how to vote,” the Cardinal said. “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.”