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	Paul Collins: George Pell Does Not Speak for Catholicism As a Whole The Gung-Ho, Headline-Grabbing Archbishop Can Make the Church Look Silly, Contends Paul Collins The Australian May 10, 2006 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19080293-7583,00.html Catholics who know how the church is organised in Australia are driven mad by the media presumption that George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, is the official spokesman for Australian Catholicism. He's not. If it's anyone, it's the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Pell represents no one but himself and the archdiocese of Sydney. The media, of course, love him because he takes a boots-and-all approach to issues, especially controversial ones. This is a deliberate decision. Some time back he said: "Catholics need a style a mite more confrontational and certainly less conciliatory to secular values. The cross is a sign of contradiction." There's some truth to that. Catholics have certainly had to cop it sweet a lot lately, but some of Pell's recent statements simply make Catholicism look silly. For instance, he said that "pagan emptiness" and fears about nature have led to "hysteric and extreme claims about global warming", adding: "In the past, pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. "Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions." But this is all part of a pattern. He has called those of us who think we might find some traces of God in nature "pantheists"; he has accused his fellow Catholics of trying to water down Catholic belief, and he's been counting the number of violent incidents in the Koran, seemingly forgetting those in the Bible. Many sensible people see this as over the top. All of this is important because the Australian Catholic bishops - all 31 diocesan bishops, 10 auxiliary bishops and the Military Vicar - are holding the first of their two plenary conferences for the year. And despite many people, including some of bishops, predicting that Pell would be elected ACBC president, he wasn't. For a time he had some influence in Rome in determining who would be appointed bishops, but it seems this influence is on the wane. He certainly doesn't have the numbers in the bishops' conference. The president is elected directly by the bishops by secret ballot, and Philip Wilson, the Archbishop of Adelaide, was elected last Friday. Wilson, one of the younger bishops at 55, was ordained a priest for the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and was previously bishop of Wollongong. He inherited a difficult situation in Wollongong when he was appointed in 1996, with a neglected diocese, sexual abuse cases and the activities and so-called apparitions of the Little Pebble, William Kamm. Wilson is considered to have dealt with the situation pastorally and effectively. He moved to the South Australian capital in 2000. Barry Hickey, the Archbishop of Perth, was elected ACBC vice-president. Hickey has a strong social work background and he and Wilson would be seen as cautious conservatives on matters of church doctrine and discipline, but middle-of-the-road on other issues. As such, they reflect the views of most Australian bishops. Pell was elected to the central committee, but that is hardly surprising because as a cardinal and archbishop of Sydney it would be astonishing if he had not been elected. The ACBC functions as a body through which the bishops address issues of national concern. It is advised by agencies such as the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, the Catholic Social Justice Council, Catholic Earthcare Australia and the Commission for Australian Catholic Women. Most of the bishops' statements with real bite come from these expert agencies. For instance, the Commission for Employment Relations was intelligently critical of the Work Choices legislation and expressed concern that the minimum wage would be eroded under the legislation. These are the sort of issues that the bishops, as a conference, need to be addressing, rather than different bishops issuing contradictory statements or someone such as Pell expressing his own opinion and leaving other bishops frustrated and angry because he does not represent them. Wilson has shown he is not afraid to get the church involved in political affairs. There has been a stoush going on in Adelaide about the appointment of Wilson's vicar general (his immediate deputy), David Cappo, by the Rann Labor Government to the executive committee of cabinet, and most recently to head the Social Inclusion Board. This led to federal Liberal MP Christopher Pyne, himself a Catholic, warning about confusion between church and state. If Wilson carries this kind of front-foot attitude to the ACBC presidency, the bishops might begin to show some moral leadership in social affairs in Australia and offer a desperately needed critique of prevailing economic and social models. They might even listen again to Catholic Earthcare Australia and give some more publicity to its excellent statement on global warming. But what Catholics don't need is more of the boots-and-all approach. A little more subtlety, intelligence, sensitivity and awareness of the complexities of public moral issues is what is needed. Paul Collins is author, most recently, of God's New Man, on Pope Benedict XVI.
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