AUSTRALIA
The Australian
GERARD WINDSOR
The Australian
June 10, 2017
Two confessions. First, I’m a practising, albeit sinful, Catholic. Second, I’ve crossed swords, in print, with George Pell.
So, is the lengthening charge sheet against the cardinal merely a vast smear campaign? In particular, is it one fuelled by a fierce antipathy to religion, to Christianity, and especially to Catholicism?
Certainly there is a stark contemporary context for this public indictment. By virtue of his status as a cardinal, his uncompromising personality and his position in the Vatican, Pell is perceived as the representative Australian Catholic. And that too at a time when the Catholic Church is seen as the major obstacle to a raft of proposed liberal social reforms: euthanasia bills before the NSW and Victorian parliaments, an abortion liberalisation bill in NSW, and the nationwide marriage equality debate.
The logic is obvious: discredit Pell and you discredit Catholic opinion on these issues. It’s a knockout blow.
Certainly we are seeing widespread expressions of the feeling that the Catholic Church has lost any right to be dictating, or even joining a discussion, on moral issues. There are secular zealots barracking shrilly as each new nail is hammered into the Pell coffin. And you know that it’s not simply justice they’re after.
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