The Archbishop has said in media statements today that he does not seek to support one party over the other. At this time, both are doing the proper thing. The Archbishop respects the honesty of both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott and both of them have said they respect the Christian point of view. He did not attack Julia Gillard or suggest how people should vote.
The Archbishop highlighted in his original statement his concern about what the future will bring if secularism is allowed to take an unchallenged hold in our society. Encroaching secularism in our society could lead to social policies that are harmful to the good of our society and personal wellbeing.
This is already becoming evident in some European countries and even here in Australia.
For example, recently in Victoria, proposed legislation threatened to deny the right of Catholic Health Professionals to conscientiously object to referring patients onto agencies that would perform abortions. The Archbishop wants to encourage people of faith to reflect on how their faith-based values are applied to social issues such as human life, human sexuality, sanctity of marriage and justice (poverty, refugees etc).
He further wants to encourage people with strong religious convictions to be active politically and to make sure their views are taken seriously by all political parties.
Archbishop Barry Hickey met with Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 2 August at her hotel room at the Sheraton in Perth where he explained media misrepresentation of his statement encouraging people of religious conviction to be politically active.
They were joined by the Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Monsignor Michael Keating, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Labor Member for Perth, Stephen Smith, and the Archbishop’s Executive Assistant, Fr Robert Cross.
The meeting, meant to be held at St Mary’s to show the Prime Minister the recently completed and restored Cathedral, had to be relocated at the last minute to the Prime Minister’s Perth accommodation due to unforeseen circumstances.
Both the Archbishop and Monsignor Keating took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister and Mr Smith for the financial support given by the Federal Government for the completion and restoration programme of the Cathedral and expressed a hope the Prime Minister would be able to tour the Cathedral at a future date.
The meeting afforded the Archbishop an opportunity to explain to the Prime Minister the media misrepresentation of his statement encouraging people of religious conviction to be politically active.
The Prime Minster said that as a politician she knew full well about media misrepresentation, and said she fully supported the Archbishop’s comments for people of religious conviction to be politically active.
Archbishop Hickey raised with the Prime Minister the issue of Aboriginal and Islander disadvantage in Australia, specifically pointing out his own intimate experience and knowledge of urban Aboriginal people in the centre of Perth.
He sought the assistance of the Prime Minister to help urban Aboriginal people to remain in education beyond primary school so as to improve their opportunity for employment and dignity.
The Prime Minister fully agreed with the Archbishop and said she would endeavour to draw on the Archbishop’s personal experience in this area in the future.
THE ORIGINAL STATEMENT RELEASED TO THE WEST AUSTRALIAN, UPON REQUEST, ON 22 JULY:
"ARCHBISHOP
HICKEY’S COMMENTS ON THE FORTHCOMING ELECTION"
Neither I
nor the priests are speaking to the people about the Federal Election, as any
indication of favouring a particular party would divide the congregations down
the middle.
We have
Church lobbies, mostly in Sydney and Canberra, that urge both major parties to
protect the activities of the Church, such as our huge education sector and our
welfare sector.
Some
Catholic social justice groups are vocal about treating the refugees with
compassion and not using them to win votes.
The
matter of the religion of the two major leaders in the campaign has not been
addressed by the Bishops formally because it might seem that the Bishops favour
one party over another. They try
to preserve their impartiality in elections.
However
for many people religion will undoubtedly be a factor. Many Christians are concerned that
someone who does not believe in God may not endorse the Christian traditions of
respect for human life, for the sanctity of marriage and the independence of
Churches, church schools and church social welfare agencies.
While
there is no indication that the present Prime Minister will not undermine the
special privileges that Churches enjoy, some wonder what the future will
bring. This may well influence
their votes.
Some will
undoubtedly vote for Mr Abbott because they appreciate his strong Christian
faith. This might be
counter-balanced by others who see it as a negative.
I do not
intend to influence the votes of Catholics, but it will be interesting to see
how important religion will turn out to be in the present climate.
Of recent
years we have seen greater political activity by Christian groups through
relatively minor parties, as they do not see their issues about matters of
human life, human sexuality, marriage and justice adequately represented in the
major parties.
The only
advice I can give is to urge people with strong religious convictions to be
active politically to make sure that their views are taken seriously by all
parties. People of faith have as
much right to have their say as any other citizen.