Bringing Back Sectarianism

There seems to be a bit of nostalgia for the good old days of religious sectarianism, or at the very least anti-clericalism, among a small minority of the Victorian population. I'm talking, of course, about the senior clergy of the Catholic Church.

In a move vaguely reminiscent of the 1950s, the church is distributing pamphlets through churches and Catholic schools outlining 25 questions Catholics should ask candidates before they give them their vote. Two of the issues covered in the pamphlet are, naturally enough, abortion and voluntary euthanasia. Here's a snippet from Friday night's Stateline, where Archbishop Dennis Hart was interviewed by Josephine Cafagna:

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: There are some hot button issues that are in this pamphlet. Two of them are euthanasia and abortion. What are you saying to your congregation, that if MPs have supported either of those two in the past or have a view in support of them, they shouldn't vote for them?
DENIS HART: We're saying to our people simply that they should consider these issues as very, very important. After all, life is the greatest gift we have and we believe that from natural birth to natural death it is absolutely an incomparable gift.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: What decision would you make of your local MP if he supported either abortion?
DENIS HART: I would certainly want to insist that I could not support anyone who did not have a clear vision about the value of life from beginning till death.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Now, the Greens Party this year introduced a Private Member's Bill in the upper House on euthanasia. Does that mean you don't think your congregation should support the Greens?
DENIS HART: I would certainly say that euthanasia for me is an absolutely essential issue. One of the problems about euthanasia, of course, is if any assisted suicide is allowed, this creates a tremendous insecurity in the community among a whole range of elderly people, and that's often not faced.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: So the bottom line about the Greens' view on this issue, you don't support it?
DENIS HART: We disagree totally with the Greens' view on this issue. We believe that the value of life is so important that we can't step aside from it.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: And therefore you can't support the Greens?
DENIS HART: We can't support the Greens on this issue.
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: On this issue, but obviously it influences a vote. If they're in support of euthanasia, you're saying really to your congregation, to your supporters, 'Don't vote for them.'
DENIS HART: We are saying that this is a very important issue. We respect the right of each individual voter. For me, of course, I could never vote for someone who took that position.

Hart's difficulty is similar to that which confronted Cardinal George Pell during a chat with a young adults group during a parish visitation:

One of them asked me how he should vote in the coming Federal election.  I replied that it was not my role to tell them how to vote, but I would make a couple of points.

First of all they should look at the policies and personal views of the individual candidates.  Good and wise people are needed in the major political parties.

Many people, including myself, are concerned about the environment, so my second point was to urge my listeners to examine the policies of the Greens on their website and judge for themselves how thoroughly anti-Christian they are.

Hart is a little more deft in his evasions than Pell who came very close to telling the young adults how not to vote. Nonetheless, while maintaining an ostensibly neutral position for the broader television audience - all the Proddies, Agnostics, Atheists, Hindus, Buddhists and potential Muslim extremists - he made a pretty clear pitch to the faithful: don't give your vote to the Greens. Like me.


Elsewhere in the world, they don't pussyfoot around:

As Americans approach the eve of election week, U.S. Cardinal-designate Raymond Burke is reminding Catholics in an exclusive 25-minute video interview that they are bound in conscience to vote for political candidates who oppose aborting babies, embryonic stem cell experiments, euthanasia and so-called homosexual "marriage"...

Some of the points the Cardinal-designate makes are:

“As a bishop it’s my obligation in fact, to urge the faithful to carry out their civic duty in accord with their Catholic faith.”

“You can never vote for someone who favors absolutely the right to choice of a woman to destroy a human life in her womb or the right to a procured abortion.”

Hart is taking exactly the same position as Burke - he's just a lot less forthright about it.