By Anthony Barich
BOB Brown wants to redefine Catholic beliefs, Cardinal George Pell has countered after the Greens leader claimed the Archbishop of Sydney is “out of touch” with mainstream Christian thinking and that Catholics support same-sex marriage.
In his weekly Sunday Telegraph column on 8 August, Cardinal Pell said the Greens are “sweet camouflaged poison”, and that while he won’t tell people who to vote for, he said that the “Green ethic” that claims humans are simply another, smarter animal is designed to replace Judeo-Christianity.
He cited Brown co-authoring a 1996 book The Greens with philosopher Peter Singer, who rejects the unique status of humans and supports infanticide, as well as abortion and euthanasia.
The prelate also said that one wing of the Greens is “like watermelons – green outside and red inside”; adding that the Greens are opposed to religious schools, would destroy the rights of those schools to hire staff and control enrolments and would bring funding for non-government schools back to the levels of 2003-04.
“Already in Canberra, Green pressure was one factor in the attacks on Calvary Hospital, because they were not providing abortions,” the Cardinal said, referring to the proposed sale of Canberra’s Calvary Public Hospital to the ACT Government, which Archbishop Mark Coleridge opposed.
“Naturally, the Greens are hostile to the notion of the family, man, woman and children, which they see as only one among a set of alternatives. They would allow marriage regardless of sexuality or gender identity,” Cardinal Pell said.
“We all accept the necessity of a healthy environment, but Green policies are impractical and expensive, which will not help the poor.”
In response, Senator Brown was reported on 9 August as saying the Greens are much closer to mainstream Christian thinking than Cardinal Pell – “that’s why he’s not standing for election and I am”, he said.
The Catholics he spoke to support an end to discrimination, Senator Brown said, along with compassion to asylum seekers and the BER (Building the Education Revolution) scheme, “like the Greens do. Cardinal Pell opposes those things”.
Senator Brown also said the Cardinal’s views on gay marriage were “discriminatory and biased”.
“Cardinal Pell’s column on Sunday has brought out another side of Bob Brown. It seems he wants not only to save the environment, but also to re-define Catholic beliefs. It is a pity he is better at spin than at checking his facts,” Cardinal Pell’s Archdiocesan communications office said in a further statement on 9 August.
The statement called Senator Brown’s comments regarding the Cardinal’s lack of support for the BER “bizarre”, as the prelate has welcomed it publicly for both public and private schools, and expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for the school improvements that the BER has made possible.
“Also contrary to Brown’s claims, Cardinal Pell’s support for asylum seekers to be treated more compassionately is a matter of long-standing public record,” the Pell’s Archdiocesan statement said.
Further, Senator Brown’s claims that the Cardinal is out of touch with mainstream Catholic and Christian majority and that they favour homosexual marriage “would be news to most Australians”, it said.
“If this really were the case it is unlikely that both major parties would have gone to the lengths they have to rule it out as an election issue,” it said.
“It is telling that the Greens have no dedicated family policy on their website.”
The economic consequences of the Greens’ policies will increase the cost of living, making food and energy more expensive, which will make the situation of the poor and the battlers even harder, the statement added.
Cardinal Pell’s Archdiocesan statement said that while Senator Brown used ‘compassion’ and ‘commonsense’ to describe the Greens’ policies, “nothing could be further from the truth – like most of what he said yesterday”. “He is a master of spin, expert at camouflaging his basic aims, distracting attention,” it said.
“Australians thinking of voting Green as a kind of protest against the major parties, especially in the Senate where the Greens could hold the balance of power, owe it to themselves and their families at least to study the Greens’ policies.”