Oliver
I don't think we are too far apart, if at all in principle. The essential fact as I see it is that regardless of secular antecedents etc. the eucharist is (to catholics) a great deal more than a remembrance meal - as I understand it, it is an essential link in the salvation chain. I argue that Cardinal Pell qua priest can direct catholic belief from the pulpit - rightly or wrongly that is his job however much I may disagree with his position. When however such direction is publicly pointed to specific MPs via the general media an altogether more sinister overtone is evident. This situation is not new. The catholic incursion into politics via the issue of state aid to catholic schools during the 1950s and 1960s helped keep the labor movement out of federal office for some twenty years. They won that one! Hopefully, these days the general public is (if not wiser) then less inclined to be manipulated by implied threats of hellfire, brimstone, and eternal damnation - one can only hope!

GYM-FISH

Thanks for your reply:

http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/11-24.htm

Please pay special attention to the last sentence the Catbolic Church is ignoring a direct command from its god.

GYM-FISH,

Do the multple interpretations of the following say what is said or not. If not, isn't Pell trying to leverage position, against his god's explicit direction, against politicians. Read Iemma.

http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/11-24.htm

If this the Word of God, what Church or Cardinal has the right to defy it?

[Pell and] now Kamal Mousselmani [head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia] should not their leverage Office. Citizen Mousselmani has an avenue to Parliament, via his elected representative, if he feels Australia is supporting Isreali terrorists.