Thanks, I agree with the author, Alex.
Catholicism is a way of life, beyond a religious identity. In order to live the way of Jesus one must have leaders willing to argue for the truth, and a people willing to inform their minds with such advice.

Any similarity between Pell and Jesus is mighty hard to spot.

" Catholicism is a way of life, beyond a religious identity. In order to live the way of Jesus one must have leaders willing to argue for the truth, and a people willing to inform their minds with such advice. " - Renee

The Catholic Church has very little to do with truth or the teaching said to have been psoted by Jesus. Institutional of the early Jesus cults occured between the first to fourth centuries. In the fourth, century that Church destroyed historically significant statues, in Taliban fashion. The Church controlled knowledge and tried to keep people ignorant and burnt scientists the stake. It is a dispictable organization up there with Hilter and Stalin.

Renee

In order to live the way of Jesus - you simply have to treat others as you would wish to be treated. It is known as "The Golden Rule"... and is also related to the teaching "judge others not, lest ye be judged". Jesus stood up for ordinary people - he was anti-authoritarian - why do you think the religious 'authorities' of his day engineered his death?

To know more about "The Golden Rule", go to the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity

Oliver

I agree, without appropriate birth control, the world is in the fast lane on the highway to hell. The Pope is now trying to attach himself to the environmental issue - no doubt because he recognises the 'mood'. Overpopulation is leading to planetary exhaustion. People do have the capacity to reason and increase their awareness of the world and how ecosystems work - hopefully from a more holistic point of view. The Pope, like many Western "leaders", wants to have his cake and eat it. This issue demonstrates clearly why following anachronistic dogma, rather than responding to events with 'reason', as they unfold, is still the way major faith leaders think. Claiming to 'reason' and then quoting 2,000 year old phrases, out of context, to justify an entrenched position is ultimately deception - even if done so 'unconsciously'.

It seems to me that the Catholic Church is overly interested in human reproduction for one reason only - to ensure its own "supremacy" as a faith institution. It is the competition for supremacy - race or faith which will eventually kill (is killing) the planet. Ironically, of course, the early christians, those closest "in time" to Jesus and his teachings, transcended race and religious difference - to them all people were equal.

We live in a country where Cardinal Pell (and everyone else)has every right to express a view about anything at all, and is indeed expected to do so because he is a cardinal. The issue is not the expression of the view, or even the implied (and in my view very real) coercion threats to various MPs - there is no greater threat to any devout catholic than the possible loss of salvation via denial of the sacraments - the real issue is the nonsense that catholics (and other religious nuts) accept as 'revealed' truth. We have a world in political turmoil largely because of alleged biblical prophecy, and proceeding towards social meltdown because of exponential population growth, yet the myths and fables of 'the book' prevail. Perhaps the good, if any, to result from the Pell comments is that at least one of the more illogical and ridiculous outcomes of christian mainstream doctrine is presented for all to see and ridicule. Cardinal Pell is an educated idiot, little more than a brainwashed mouthpiece for an archaic and totally outmoded secular organisation that claims a direct telephone to a non-existent god. Dr Pell obviously has no accurate idea of what is entailed by therapeutic cloning. Perhaps in the fullness of time if Dr Pell develops Parkinson's disease or any of the many other dreadful afflictions possibily cureable by cloned stem cell therapy he might see fit to change his view. If the human race is to survive it will be due to a combination of various secular devices of which science is a major player, not by the hoped for advent of Jesus or the spiritual administrations of the pope. Examine the record.

GYM-FISH,

Pell acts inappropriately if he "threatens" politicians from taking communion. He is leveraging his position a cardinal to counter a political process with an ideology. It is a strongarm tactic against Iemma's will.

It would be equally wrong for a Bank not to finance small businesses backing a certain political party.

Moreover, my understanding is that Eucharist is to believers and even non-believers, a memorial meal remembering the Life of Jesus, having nothing to with the doctrines of a Church founded hundreds of years after His death. Probably, originally, the meal was more aligned to Jewish home rites than any Christian Sunday organised religion.

If God did exist, It would a separate construct to the Church, which comprised of humans pretending to be that God's agent to their own advantage.