Cardinal Pell corrects politicians who claim to be Catholic but vote differently

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney

Sydney, Australia, Jan 5, 2011 / 05:31 am (CNA).- As the country faces intense legislative debate this upcoming year over same-sex “marriage” and euthanasia, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney blasted politicians who claim a Catholic identity, yet consistently defy Church teachings on major issues.

In a Jan. 4 interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, Cardinal Pell gave a sharp rebuke to Australian members of parliament who "fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag" but "blithely disregard Christian perspectives" in their actions.

"If a person says, 'Look, I'm not a Christian, I've a different set of perspectives,' I disagree but I understand," he said. "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."

Cardinal Pell called out politicians who endorse secular stances on issues while insisting that they're Catholics, saying, “if you're espousing something that's not a Christian position, don't claim Christian backing for that."

The Catholic Church “doesn't teach the primacy of conscience,” he said, explaining that a person's conscience doesn't trump Church teaching. “You know if somebody said apartheid was all right, nobody would say, 'Yes you can say that because of the primacy of conscience.'"

"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,” he said.

"I'm not telling people how to vote," he underscored during the interview. "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."

I’m sick of hearing about homosexual “marriages,”

Newly elected Governor A Cuomo, whose live-in girlfriend is Food Network's Sandra Lee, is delivering his first State of the State. He just announced that he will push through gay marriage this year. Gov. Paterson tried to do it in 2010 but it did not make it past the assembly. We now have more Republican legislators than last year. Hopefully, it will fail again.

Thank you for the link. No doubt we are both shocked and appalled but not surprised by Hubbard’s comments at last Sunday’s mass. Three years and counting. At this point, I pray that B-16 will still be with us to appoint a more orthodox bishop. In the meantime, I enjoy the great counsel and guidance of Bishop Gregory John Mansour, who took time from his busy schedule, to visit the small parish of St. Ann in Troy and join us in praying the Christmas Novena. He was so moved by the outpouring of love, affection and prayer that he has now decided to return during Lent. As one of our RC visitors commented, after speaking at length with the visiting bishop, “this is NO Bishop Hubbard”.

At this point, I pray that B-16 will still be with us to appoint a more orthodox bishop.In the meantime, I enjoy the great counsel and guidance of Bishop Gregory John Mansour, who took time from his busy schedule, to visit the small parish of St. Ann in Troy and join us in praying the Christmas

I am praying for this as well,dear Sister.I also want to attend the Liturgy at Saint Anne's one of these Sundays soon.It's only around 30 minutes or so from where I live and I go to Saint Augustine's in Troy to attend Adoration many times since they have it 7 days a week

Too many Catholics have a "conscience as King" attitude! I had to correct a fellow Confirmation teacher after classes one night, when several of us were having a discussion about sin. He thought that if folks didn't believe something was a sin, it wasn't. I said it didn't matter how the sinner 'felt' about the sin, it was a sin, regardless. If someone gives a sinful action some thought, it means that they KNOW what there are doing is wrong, they just want to justify their behavior by saying they don't 'feel' its a sin.

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