I think Cardinal Pell is impressing the pope and proving that he's a muscular Catholic, like Cardinal Ratszinger. Unfortunately for Pell and his fellow fundamentalists, the majority of the Australian public are intelligent and don't believe his 'no' case has merit. Nor do they accept his assessment of the risks of reckless 'Frankentein' science taking over. But many more battles with scientists lie ahead - the church has form against the finest minds that challenge the dogma associated with literal interpretation of holy scripts.

Most reasonable people see the benefit of ethically regulated stem cell research and the huge potential benefits that this line of scientific research offers people living with life threatening and debilitating medical conditions.

The more we understand the limitations of the human genome, the more we can appreciate that it's merely a slow work in progress of Darwinian evolution. Pell sees mankind as a 'hands off' masterpiece by God that we dare not tinker with, less we face the consequences of His wrath.

In the longer term, stem cell research will inevitably develop the potential to improve upon the human genome template we inherit to include innovative genes from other life forms that have the capacity to repair spinal nerve cells, replace missing adult teeth and restore hearing from damaged hair folicles in the inner ear.

That kind of enhancement would gift an intergenerational legacy to human kind and reduce our rocketing public health costs by billions of dollars each year. To get there, you can bet on the fundamentalists fighting with every trick at their disposal.

In view of the desirability of separating religon and state, could parliament consider rescinding the generous tax free status given to religous institutions?

It seems like the unions are allowed to manipulate members of the Labour Party while Cardinell Pell isn't allowed to threaten or have an opinion on moral issues. Typical double standards for those who tried their upmost to defend compulsory unionism at universities.

It is quite evident that Ms Rhiannon understands nothing about how the Catholic Church works - or indeed for what it stands! For a start Cardinal Pell was doing nothing more than stating the Church's professed stand on stem cell research. Secondly, he was reminding Catholics - and yes, that includes Catholic MPs - that there are moral consequences to ignoring the Church's teachings, consequences which may well affect that person's soul. I know that all this sounds like absolute bunkum to non-believers like Rhiannon, but it actually is quite important to believing Catholics and it does them no harm to be reminded of this fact from time to time. The Cardinal never threatened to withold communion from any MP - and incidentally, Ms Rhiannon, communion is not a "service", it is a sacrament. I realise that Ms Rhiannon and her ilk would love to see a 100% secular parliament, with the dismal, no hope philosophy which non-believers usually peddle, but she is just going to have to live with the fact that there are quite a lot of people in this State who actually do believe and take it very seriously. Quite a lot of them, believe it or not, are Ms Rhiannon's constituents - so watch out, my dear, or they might just withdraw their "services."

Heaven forbid that a Catholic cardinal should try and restrict access to Holy Communion for those who act against the Church's teachings! It's not like this is a Catholic ritual or anything, and that a lay Catholic's opinion of whether or not he/she should be able to take is any less authoritative than that of a Catholic leader!

(Although I am not a Catholic, and I personally have some issues with the Catholic view of Communion, I respect the right of Catholic leaders to make judgments about how Catholics should take Communion, and the circumstances under which they should be barred from it. Catholicism is hierarchal. Deal with it.)

Not once do we read the word "embryonic" stem cell research in the debate. Is this a concerted effort to mislead the readers?

Cardinal Pell was not the only Church representative to criticise the MPs. Anglicans, Baptists, and other leaders voiced their concerns too (minus the alleged threats).

Perhaps it is time to remind our servants the MPs that life’s moral and mortal issues come under a higher authority under which they accepted office.

Liberal democracy does not have to be amoral or atheistic to be popular (and gain votes).

Demos,

Look again.....I didn't say I was superior, I said the People is superior....after all, we pay the politicians and they work for us. There are superiors in the army ranks, police ranks, employment ranks and in the ranks of democracy.