By Brian Toohey
West Australian
July 7, 2008
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=54&ContentID=83311
Australian Catholics are treated far more tolerantly today than they were 50 or 100 years ago. But the Church is pushing its luck. It now risks a backlash after the Catholic-dominated NSW Labor Government made it a criminal offence to do anything which "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in World (Catholic) Youth Day".
Catholics have come a long way since the Liberal Party reflected widespread Protestant attitudes when it was founded by Robert Menzies in the 1940s. John Cramer, who became a minister in the Menzies government in 1956, wrote in his memoirs that Mr Menzies would say when he approached: "Be careful boys, here comes the papist". Mr Cramer said: "It always seemed uppermost in his mind that I was Catholic and therefore in some way different."
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Much has changed. Liberal leader Brendan Nelson is a Catholic, as is shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull. Another Catholic front bencher, Tony Abbott, is a vigorous proponent of his Church's views on moral issues such as euthanasia, stemcell research and contraception (but not on the invasion of Iraq).
Mr Abbott recently wrote a long article expressing his hopes that the local Catholic Church will be transformed by the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in mid-July for the week-long World Youth Day (WYD). Mr Abbott candidly acknowledged that WYD, expected to draw at least 100,000 overseas pilgrims and a similar number from interstate, "will all but close down Sydney".
For Mr Abbott, the primary importance of the Pope's visit relates to internal Church matters. He says: "If Pope Benedict leaves Sydney without tackling the malaise of the Church (in Australia), people will feel cheated and WYD will have been a failure".
Mr Abbott makes it plain that the malaise he has in mind is the decline of the Church as a religious force, rather than issues such as the sexual abuse of young people by clergy. Whether the Church gains from the Pope's visit is no business of a secular state. If the visit fails to satisfy Mr Abbott's criteria, the 95 per cent of Australians who don't go to Mass on Sunday are unlikely to "feel cheated". But their mood is unlikely to be improved after last week's revelations about the NSW Government's use of its regulatory powers, without parliamentary debate, to introduce tough new curbs on individual liberties.
Anyone who annoys WYD participants at 680 sites will commit a criminal offence. Police powers have been given to volunteers from the State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Brigade, but they have refused to use them. But police can deem the distribution of free condoms to pilgrims to be annoying regardless of their utilitarian value.
Likewise, messages on T-shirts and banners can be outlawed. Police have even told the much sinned against victims group, Broken Rites, that it has to submit banners, proposed locations and so on to gain approval to protest against clerical sexual abuse.
NSW Premier Morris Iemma and his deputy John Watkins are Catholics, as is WYD Minister Kristina Keneally, who says that WYD's promoter, Cardinal George Pell, did not request the new laws, but the Church was consulted. A law professor at the Australian Catholic University, the Jesuit priest Frank Brennan, wrote in the online magazine Eureka Street that the law "is a dreadful interference with civil liberties, and contrary to the spirit of Catholic social teaching on human rights. I am saddened that the State has seen fit to curtail civil liberties further in this instance than for other significant international events hosted in Sydney". Fr Brennan said no fair application of the principles set out in a 1963 papal encyclical "would permit an extension of police powers simply to preclude protesters from causing annoyance to pilgrims attending WYD".
The week-long jamboree — involving extensive road closures and heavy-handed security — will cause serious inconvenience to many businesses and residents. Randwick racecourse will be closed for 10 weeks to prepare for a sleep-over by Catholic youth followed by a papal Mass. The closure requires several small business operators, including 25 trainers and their staff, as well as vets, farriers and feedstock merchants, to vacate their workplaces along with almost 800 horses. Initially, no provision was made for compensation, but the Howard and
Iemma governments eventually put in $40 million, bringing overall government subsidies to roughly $160 million.
State schools are being made to accommodate visiting pilgrims, even though they are not insured for this type of occupancy. Residents at university colleges are being told to move out to create room for pilgrims. Trees are being uprooted in parks to create an easier passage for pilgrims. Changed traffic rules mean that many businesses will lose customers who are unable to park within walking distance.
Mr Watkins has even appealed to the altruism of workers in the CBD and urged them take holidays to ease congestion during WYD.
Unless he wants to resurrect sectarian tensions, Cardinal Pell should support the immediate repeal of the repressive new law and pay a much bigger share of the costs.
While not exactly offering fully catered corporate boxes, the Church is selling good seats to the Pope's Mass for $175 each. Catering is included in a $335 ticket which offers a clear view of a devout young man re-enacting Christ's crucifixion.
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