AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net
Cardinal George Pell and Catholic Church in Australia are very sensitive to criticism. They are also very influential in Australian politics, and have not hesitated to use that power. There are two glaring examples of this that have occurred in recent times.
The first was the T-shirt protest against Pope Benedict’s visit to Sydney in 2008 for the Catholic Church’s World Youth gathering. Although Pell specifically denied having an influence on the NSW State Labor government, the arrangement to have the then Premier, Maurice Iemma, pose for a photograph with the Pope, and Iemma’s family, indicated otherwise. Iemma was known as a very committed Catholic.
The upshot was an extraordinary law passed by the NSW Government, which made it an offence to “annoy or inconvenience” participants in the World Youth event. Even wearing a T-shirt with an anti-church message carried a fine of $5,500. Victims of clergy abuse were subjected to this law, along with those opposing the church’s social policies.
Police and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service were enabled to direct people to cease engaging in conduct that “causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event”. One on-line site was selling T-shirts with the message “$5500 – a small price to pay for annoying Catholics.”
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