Ben Chifley (who was a devout Catholic by the way) must be kicking in his grave to what they have now done to his Party.

The True Believer! and now his Labor Party is full of The No Believers.

Dear Constance,

I read the article.
I didn't vote Labor in the lower (or upper) house last election because they were almost indistinguishable from the conservatives.
In my experience, it is possible to reach beyond so-called "class" boundaries intellectually. The working-class has always been in the same boat. All the histories of the world are written by the educated intellectual class and that is never going to change. These days the working-class are even more cast adrift because of the breakdown of true communal ties....they are at the mercy of the mind-numbing influence of the electronic media which in large part has taken up the role of forming the mentalities of the lower social orders - sort of a modern day equivalent to the stained-glass windows in a medieval church. Their minds, for the most part, are filled with bilge from commercial media and entertainment outlets. They do respond to dog whistling, as do we all - look at how Mr Howard managed, without too much trouble, to lure Pauline Hanson's supporters over to the Liberals. Julia Gillard tried it too with her offshore processing "solution".

Blaming intellectuals for the position and the mentality of the working-class is oversimplifying the issue...in any case, labelling people and calling them hypocrites is unhelpful to the discussion.

Btw, you are right about allies - we all need them.

Constance,

It is too easy and unfair to dismiss the Labor “elite” with the usual chardonnay/latte epithets. There are many Labor people who support the social justice traditions of the party. They don’t all drink chardonnay, lattes or Beaujolais (which I am sure must now have been renamed under the EU “don’t copy our names” rules).

You might be interested in <a href=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/give-pc-purists-someone-they-can-hate/story-e6frg6ux-1225929070036>Give PC purists something they can hate</a> (Frank Furedi, The Weekend Australian, 25-26/9/2010).

The many misinformed, bigoted atheistic and secularistic comments confirm that Catholicophobia is on the rise.

Surprisingly, these commenters are unable to prove the non-existence of God.

With regard to Cardinal Kasper's alleged remarks, it would be interesting to see how the author (or anyone else for that matter) would use politically correct language to put across the Cardinal's alleged view.

Dear Raycom,

Why is it surprising that one cannot prove the non-existence of God?

Can you prove the non-existence of Zeus? I can't. At one time many people were positive he existed. At this time many people are positive that God exists. Because a number of people believe that something is true is not a proof that it is true.

If proof is called for the one who makes the assertion should provide the proof.

I see no reason to think of God as anything else than a human invention.

david f

You show your ignorance. It should not take too much effort on your part to trace back the link to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.