The extraordinary attack on Cardinal Pell

3AW's Neil Mitchell put it to the Prime Minister this morning that Cardinal Pell was guilty of contempt of parliament because he has (allegedly) threatened Catholic MPs in NSW parliament with excommunication if they voted in favour of overturning a ban on therapeutic cloning. I don't know whether Neil Mitchell was motivated by his own views or by the public debate arising from what Cardinal Pell actually said - media reports have not made this clear. Clear, though, is that Cardinal Pell was reasonably raising the question of a Catholic MP's standing as a Catholic if his actions and views were directly contrary to Catholic teaching.

Even if Neil Mitchell can be commended for putting the question without colour, there are those in the community who have seen Cardinal Pell's entirely reasonable position as the pretext to launch into the most rabid anti-Catholic rant. ABC 774's John Faine, at best constrained with regard to his expressions about the Catholic Church, had to gasp in surprise at one caller who, all fired up, was so eager to condemn the Catholic Church as the murderer of millions of people that he ended up in spluttering incoherence. I suspect that the success of Oxford University Professor Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion, and his television appearances (courtesy of ABC's Compass program) has turned up state-approved anti-Catholic bigotry to new levels. However, the subject of Richard Dawkins will be left to another day.

I merely want to point out here that Cardinal Pell is doing no more than what a president, leader, coordinator or any other such functionary would do to preserve the integrity of their organisation. It is simply a straightforward unchallengeable proposition that the Labor Party would question a member's standing if he espoused policies or views that were directly contrary to Labor Party policy or ideology. If that member subscribed to Liberal Party views he would be invited to leave the Labor Party and join the Liberal Party. Surely?

The Catholic Church, in secular terms, is an organisation which invites people to join it. Nobody has to join it. And members can give up their membership whenever they want. But if they put themselves forward as Catholic, then they should follow Catholic teaching. If not, they should have enough backbone and honesty to get out - and stop the charade. The sooner the better.