The Australian's Rome correspondent, Father Paul Kelly concludes his puff piece in the Weekend Australian by begging the question, 'Meanwhile Australian's can ponder what sort of secular state they want.'

Well, Paul, you can put your glasses down; they have.

For starters they want democracy in their major institutions. Joseph Ratzinger presides over an exclusive, undemocratic, boys-own theocracy.

They want pluralism. They don't mind other people having different opinions, in fact they will defend the right of other people to disgree with them.

The want equal opportunity for their daughters. The Catholic Church is the last bastion of misogyny.

They want to be members of a tolerant society. The Catholic Church's answer to tolerance is 'Go to hell'. This is the organisations that invented the crime of blasphemy to protect its intolerance and would still be burning people at the stake if good men hadn't stopped them.

They respect the right of people to fall in love with members of their own gender.

They want to protect the innocence of their children. They don't want them fondled and brutalized by Catholic clergy. (They haven't yet woken up to that fact that their children are still being indoctrinated into a pernicious philosophy.)

Australians are definitely in favour of keeping private matters private. They've put their hands up for sex before marriage, for contraception, for the freedom to have an abortion when they need one, and the option to end their lives with the dignity of euthanasia. Joseph Ratzinger wants to climb into the back seat of every car, peer under every blanket and jump into every hospital bed.

They want the freedom of a guilt-free existence. The Catholic Church ...

It goes on and on. In the arena of values, throughout it's long history, the Catholic Church has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future that Australians have decided for themselves that they want.

So Paul, while marauding hoards of orange back-packed Catholic zealots are running amok in our cities, the answer to your question, 'Does Ratzinger have anything to offer Australia?' is a resounding no.

God is not about to give up the planet He created to god deniers. They are throwing tantrums and demanding the right to be their own gods. For a short period He will allow that. Many have been handed over to their own lusts. We see John Lennon philosophy and he is in the grave, we see the beatles and most of them are in the grave, we see Gandhi and he is in the grave, we see Buddha and he is in the grave. Thank God that the grave of Christ was and is empty.

The secularist want to kill the unborn, continue to promote promiscuity, pretend that evolution is science and then say the most ridiculous things at funerals about people who lived godless lives. You might want want want want. It is a pity you don't seek God and you will find forgiveness in Christ instead of being so arrogant.

Good one runner.
PS: I think euthanasia is the cowards way out.

Frank,

I concur with much that you have posted but this

>> "The Catholic Church is the last bastion of misogyny."

really? The last bastion? What about the Islamo-facists?

Paul,

I'm happy to stand corrected. You're quite right.

Frank

Dear Frank,

I agree with most of what you said in
your opening post.

However, I'm not so sure about the Pope.
Only because to me, he's an enigma.
I've heard that he's an intellectual,
a theologian, and so forth. But other
than that he's a bit of a shadowy
figure.

I'd like to know what he really thinks.
Where he stands on certain issues.
And whether he's like Cardinal Pell,
who's more about exclusion, than
compassion.

I suspect I know the answers, but I'd
really like to hear the man speak.

I can only hope that he won't be small-minded,
espousing the same wooden cadences of the past.
Because this world could really do with hope,
and healing, instead of sermons that have little
meaning in today's modern world.