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Australia's Cardinal Pell Repents of Failing to Sufficiently Stress Moral Teaching

Review of last 40 years sermons struck him how little he preached on morality

SYDNEY, March 3, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal George Pell, widely believed to be among the bishops most faithful to Pope John Paul II, has startled the media with his public repentance of having failed to preach sufficiently on morality, particularly sexual morality. The revelation came in an interview published today with Australia's The Bulletin in which the Cardinal noted that he was publishing a collection of his sermons over the past 40 years. "In going through them one of the things that struck me, and I think it's a failing, is how little I've preached on morality, let alone sexual morality, in my Sunday sermons," he said.

Cardinal Pell also revealed that the false accusation of sexual abuse he endured and over which was completely vindicated has encouraged him to be less "wishy-washy". He told the interviewer that going through that ordeal changed him: "I hope I wasn't too wishy-washy in the past but, you know, when clear issues are at stake, I think I would be less hesitant than I ever was to back off ... I think I'm just saying that more than ever, if I felt that something important was at stake, neither hell nor high water would shift me."

Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, holds great hope for the Church, seeing the young priests in his diocese he says, "they'll be much tougher in their approach than I am ... they'll make me look a bit wishy-­washy, small-l liberal."

The Cardinal did not shy away from straight talk on homosexuality during the interview. When asked about it he responded, "We'd say that homosexual activity is one type of sexual activity of which the Church does not approve. Heterosexual adultery, the Church doesn't approve. Pre-marriage sex between a man and a woman, the Church doesn't approve."

For the faithful bishop the issue was not very difficult, "I think that if you sign up to be a Christian, you accept what are the basic teachings. If there are enough of them you can't accept, then I suppose you could say, 'Well, I'm not a Christian'."

To see the full interview see The Bulletin at:
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/All/13966FF3D884F521CA256E400...

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