By + Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, 29 August 2010<\/p>\n

Democracy is alive and well in Australia. Democratic processes are robust and generally followed with good humour.<\/p>\n

I voted at Sydney Town Hall, taking whatever cards were offered. One Sex Party volunteer ignored me politely and resolutely although their next distributor smiled and said that I probably didn’t need their material. I cheerfully agreed. Afterwards I went to say a prayer in St. Andrew’s Cathedral, which I do once in a while, but it was closed.<\/p>\n

The electioneering was a long, hard and often negative slog and many were tired of it by the end. To the dismay of the commentariat both leaders, formidable politicians, avoided catastrophe and were well matched.
\nA
\nAs the Prime Minister acknowledged when paying tribute to the leader of the Opposition, they represent the two major forces in peaceful contention for the soul of the Australian people; agnosticism or faith, moral autonomy or tradition, welfare or self-reliance, Emily’s List or pro-life, although years of experience, practicality, a moderate electorate and the centralizing pressures of the process have pushed them both towards the middle.<\/p>\n

The two forces are contending within the major parties.<\/p>\n

We should be grateful for the personal qualities and competence of both leaders, their grudging mutual admiration and for the fact that the campaign was not marked by spite and personal muck raking.<\/p>\n

The electorate is evenly divided and the next election (not too soon we hope) is there to be won by the side which learns and grows.<\/p>\n

Now that the Greens have again won one seat in the House of Representatives and increased their Senate numbers, the media must examine their policies as closely as they examine those of the major parties. So far this has been conspicuously absent.<\/p>\n

It is regrettable but understandable that some will unreflectingly accept the Green slogans of “compassion” and “environment”, without examining their policies which are anti-religious schools, anti-jobs, anti-family, and anti-human life. They would destroy prosperity.<\/p>\n

That any Christian with aspirations to be considered a serious political commentator should endorse the Greens demonstrates a moral disorientation and an ignorance of Christian fundamentals which is breathtaking, even in our confused age. One searches desperately in history for a comparable folly. Perhaps the renegade Christian who guided the invading Turkish army to enter and capture Constantinople in 1453 is the most recent parallel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank God it isn’t all too serious; at least until the next big financial downturn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally the resistance is starting. Note the final paragraphs. Cardinal George Pell is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. Emphasis mine. By + Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, 29 August 2010 Democracy is alive and well in Australia. Democratic processes are robust and generally followed with good humour. I voted at Sydney Town Hall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[1431,11,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7594"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7597,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions\/7597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}