So we all agree: the problem isn't that Pell is outspoken, the problem is that he's a fundamentalist superstitious twit.

First a declaration of interest. I am an atheist. Have been for over 50 years.

I have never been a member of the Catholic Church. The mere thought of being involved with the church makes me shudder.

BUT

Pell has acted within the rights granted him under the constitution to practise his religion freely. The Catholic Church is a community of believers. Presumably if you do not believe in the core teachings of the church, the church has the right to decide you are no longer entitled to participate in its rituals.

Alexandra Smith and Linda Morris have the right to ignore the Cardinal and vote as they see fit. That's one of the many beauties of secular democracy.

But Smith and Morris do not have a legal right to participate in the Catholic Church's rituals. In fact there is no human or constitutional right to participate in the rituals of the Catholic Church. Not even if you're born a Catholic do you have that right.

Those like Jocelynne Scutt who want to dictate to the church who may, or may not, participate in its rituals are breeching the divide between state and religion they say they are trying to protect.

IT IS JOCELYNNE SCUTT AND HER ILK, NOT PELL, WHO IS THE DANGER.

Now if Pell had issued a death threat against Alexandra Smith and Linda Morris that would have been a different matter. But he didn't. The substance of the Cardinal's "threat" is that they may be denied the right to participate in some Catholic rituals.

The idea that the Catholic Church should be investigated by the ICAC because of Pell's statements is unhinged. It is also precisely the sort of misuse of legal process that has become the trademark of modern law. We don't like what they're doing so we'll threaten them with litigation.

IT IS THE LAWYERS, NOT THE CARDINALS, WE SHOULD FEAR

This article is a joke right?

One comment by a Christian and this is the outcome? Where are you people when the likes of 'women must be indoors, covered, in their room' so they won't be attacked?

Or the demand that Islamic holidays be included in this nations holiday calender, a nation totally built on Judeo-Christian values.

Those who don't say Islamic values are utterly immoral, backward depravity are party to the brutality of women under those values in any number of countries - including Australia.

This writer wouldn't make a good triage nurse. There's people bleeding to death everywhere, and you've gone up to the guy with a minor cut to his arm!

Unless you types protest against the Hilali's, against the vast majority of the redneck Muslim leadership, it is cowardly, weak to say anything to anyone else.

Then again though, you probably like the idea of your head remaining on your body, so you, like someone not very intelligent, will pick on those you can and hide from those you can't.

And Muslims make up less than 2% of our population?

Get your act together. Pell isn't going to kill anyone for saying Christ (well, what can you say bad about Jesus - I'm actually a non-religous person, although have a deep respect for Christ's philosophy) was this or that, or if you vote on stem cells.

Try that with Muslim values. You try to tell them that it isn't holy that their prophet had a six year old wife (how many of you people even know that? Or know that Muslims consider this paedophile, murderer, bigot, robber, the supreme example?) and see what happens.

Hirsi Ali is the prime example.

Yet you talk about Pell - where are your morals?

Sancho said ' They are pro choice. It is the difference between dictating what a woman should do with her body, and giving her the option to choose for herself' WRONG my friend. It is not HER body that is flushed down the toilet. It is the body of another. Another. Another. NOT HER BODY. Get it now?

Why is it that some people take the words ' separation of church and state' to mean elimination of the church?

father of night, if you think the argument about abortion is that simple then you're a fool. But that doen't matter: we can argue about moral issues. What is irrepairably absurd is when poeple like Pell and Hilali take their rigidly held moral cues from mythical beings.