Ludwig,
>>‘and go out and have lots of babies because at the moment you er we er are not keeping the population up to a stable level’<<

This indeed would be a quote of an exhortation (not of just a statement of fact). However, the only source you provide, showing that these were EXACTLY Pell's words, is yourself.

Here Here, Col ,
No Politicians bring up the obvious solution of a lower birth rate to lower the Green house Effect - it is now becoming obvious why .

Come to think of it, why didn't professor Ross Garnaut ??

Meanwhile, the Muslims , Jews and Catholics are all trying to outbreed each other in the race of religions - How stupid is that !

Isn't it about time the leading world religions acted more responsibly ?

“However, the only source you provide, showing that these were EXACTLY Pell's words, is yourself.”

They probably aren’t his exact words George. I specifically said; “I was utterly appalled last night to hear Pell say words to the effect:

‘and go out and have lots of babies because at the moment you er we er are not keeping the population up to a stable level’ .“

It was not just a statement of fact, or a statement of belief or a gross error of fact. He most definitely exhorted people towards a certain line of action.

Whatever way you look at it, Pell is just so terribly out of order with his comments that we in any way need to increase our birthrate, either in Australia or globally. He needs to be condemned for this sort of totally uninformed rhetoric.

Oh man, now I have to have another child. I already had one for me, one for my partner and one for Peter Costello. Now I have to have one for George Pell.

I wish I had my own free will, so I could choose how many offspring I had. Hang on...

US "I wish I had my own free will, so I could choose how many offspring I had. Hang on..."

I exercised my free will and took the option after having two.

A vasectomy I mean, cheap, effective.

Now, as I fire only blanks, does that make me a heretic (even if I never laugh during and say I don't enjoy it)?

or perhaps I am just more of a heretic than I was when still firing live rounds? :-)

Ludwig,
>> Whatever way you look at it, Pell is just so terribly out of order with his comments that we in any way need to increase our birthrate, either in Australia or globally. He needs to be condemned for this sort of totally uninformed rhetoric. <<

You might or might not be right about what you think he meant and Pell might or might not be right about how to solve West's problems, but that was not my point. As stated above, I only wanted to point out the difference between a quote and its interpretation.

However, I have to admit, I found an official report that comes close enough to your interpretation (British Catholic weekly The Tablet, 19.7.) "Cardinal Pell ... at a news conference on Monday ... urged Australia and other Western countries to increase the size of their families". Note: he urges "Western countries" in a press conference, which is not exactly an exhortation to the young Catholic participants of WYD08, where the majority of non-Australians come from non-Western countries.

[By the way, for instance German politicians (and I presume other European as well) are very concerned about the aging population in their country, and have recently budgeted arrangements (more creches, increased family allowances) to encourage families to have children, knowing that the solution to the demographic (hence economic) crisis in Western countries lies neither in an increased birthrate nor in immigration but probably in a reasonable combination of both (plus reduced consumption of energy etc.). So Pell (or the German Government for that matter) might be "terribly out of order", I do not know. But I do know that some contributors here have very simple ideas about how to solve world's problems. There certainly exist naive interpretations of the Catholic position both by overly zealous Catholics and overly zealous anti-Catholics.]