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I had to reply to the article (CW 25/2) lauding one of Catholicism’s “sons” Industrial Relations Minister, Tony Abbot. I’m a daily communicant, I confess at least monthly. I’m
consecrated to our blessed Mother and loyal to the directions of our saintly Pope John Paul II. I’m also a dedicated trade unionist. Would I also be considered by The Catholic Weekly as one of Catholicism’s “sons”?
I stand against almost everything Tony Abbot stands for, the most obnoxious of which is his thinly veiled attacks on trade unions. He and his government would abolish them and place full control in the hands
of their mentors, the “industrialists”. Are we so blind we cannot see what “globalism “ is doing? Oh sure, there have been and are self-seeking opportunists in the trade union movement and trade unionism has been
exploited by the communists and Freemasons. But it is one of the few voices we still have. Its history and formation in this country, particularly by the Irish (my forbears) is a proud legacy.
Is this
industrial relations, that represent only one side, and are they the same minds who history shows had little kids of eight and nine crawling up soot filled chimneys and pushing skips in mines. Are these the same
people that contemporary investigators are reporting and who are exploiting child labour in Asia? Who have children working in slave labor conditions making our high priced joggers? My trade unionist father told me
the horror stories of the depression years when these people gained full control because of economic misery.
Is one of our “sons” the man who constantly lays before us the wonderful success of our economy in
which Telstra announces a billion dollar profit and in the same breath announces with callous impunity the sacking of 10,000 workers, with not a smidgen of apparent concern by our government, who owning half the
enterprise, seems to laud the effort as good business. Do we have a model of economic achievement where the rich get richer and the underprivileged poorer. It makes me wonder if The Catholic Weekly has concern. I’m
sure Christ our Lord and Savior has concern.
Kevin McGreal
Valentine, NSW
ISSUE OF CONSCIENCE VOTES
Your editorial ‘Free conscience votes’ (CW
25/2) touches on a crucial and delicate aspect of democracy which can make the conscience of members of parliament a slave of the political leaders. Indeed, it is not unlikely that a member who votes against the
party line would lose preselection, his/her political career, and with it a not negligible income.
Whilst democracy is incomparably better than communism, fascism and other totalitarian systems, we should not
blindfoldedly praise it through and through. As so well explained by you, it carries with it and inbuilt into the possibility of the tyranny of party policy and the sometimes unacceptable discipline of the party
whip.
In the matter of euthanasia and similar deep moral issues, unless a party fought an election campaign with a clearly defined pro-euthanasia policy in its election manifesto, then its members of
parliament should be allowed a conscience vote.
Should a political party contest an election with a pro-euthanasia policy, it is highly debatable whether a Catholic could, in conscience, be a member of that
party, a candidate of that party, or vote for that party.
In the same page as your editorial you published a letter by Leslie Clarke of Rooty Hill encouraging all those against euthanasia to write to the
Health Minister to register our objections. I have already done so and I want this letter to be a public declaration of my convictions, in the humble hope that that those Catholic doctors who find it difficult to
come out openly in the anti-euthanasia struggle and debate will be encouraged to do so.
George Boffa
Ashfield, NSW
BLESSED, NOT HAPPY
It was
refreshing to read the review of Jim Forrest’s book The Ladder of the Beatitudes (CW 4/3) where the author uses the word “Blessed”.
In recent years it has been the practice to substitute that word with
“happy” which stresses no longer the conferring of a divine gift but rather the responsive state and even moods of the human subject – the profane interpretation as distinct from the spiritual.
Edmund J Baulman
Northbridge, NSW
NEW PRIESTLY ORIGINS
On Sunday, February 18, 2001 Bishop David Cremin installed Fr Janusz Bieniek, a Polish priest,
as the fourth parish priest of North Ryde. The first parish priest was the late Fr Martin Crehan, an Irishman.
It is a sign of the times that the needs of our Australian Catholics, who were so well served by
“the men of ’38”and their Irish successors for over a century, that we are now dependant on priests from Europe and Asia.
Geoffrey M Prendergast
North Ryde, NSW
POLITICAL DISAPPOINTMENT
I am sending this email to express surprise and disappointment at the political content in the letter published from the Deputy Leader of the State
Opposition (CW 11/3).
I had hoped they would have learnt a lesson from their previous political stance over the Vietnam War, but it appears that they haven’t.
John Ireland, President
Catholic Club Sydney
REFLECT ON TEMPTATION
The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness makes for some interesting reflections. One, contrary to the view of the
Sydney Morning Herald, is that the devil is real. Second, the temptations used all focused on the first commandment. Maybe this was an economy of effort, but one suspects that they were carefully
chosen. For if one faithfully observes the first commandment then the rest should follow. Thirdly, the temptations involved the deliberate misuse of scripture.
This highlights the need
for our understanding of scripture to be guided by the Holy Spirit who is actively working through the Church.
Bryan Michael Doyle
Rosemeadow, NSW
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