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Australian “Liberal Catholics” Seek Vatican Approval for Dissent from Church Doctrine

Letter says Cardinal Pell misrepresents teaching on “primacy of conscience”

by Hilary White

SYDNEY, February 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of prominent Australians is petitioning the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to uphold their dissent from Church teaching. The group has sent a letter to the CDF demanding that the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog correct George Cardinal Pell for what they say are his misrepresentations of Catholic doctrine.

They complain that the Cardinal’s emphasis on the Church’s teaching on issues like contraception, abortion and euthanasia, leaves no room for what they call the “primacy of conscience” which they claim was established by the Second Vatican Council. The group upholds the popular myth that Vatican II established the “right” of Catholics to make moral judgments opposed to Catholic moral teaching.

Pell does not seem disturbed by the action however, calling the fact that such well-known Catholic dissidents are writing to Rome for confirmation of their dissent “a real hoot.” Pell told Australian media, “There has never been a traditional Catholic teaching of the primacy of conscience.” Pell is upholding Catholic teaching that says for a Catholic to choose his conscience over the Church’s teaching is a contradiction.

“This was one of the great issues at the Reformation and the word of God remains supreme no matter how uncomfortable this is for the loyal opposition, for Catholic dissenters. A watch or clock is always useful, especially when it is telling the correct time,” Pell said.

The idea of ‘primacy of conscience,’ has plagued the Catholic Church and undermined its effectiveness in public debates since the close of Vatican II in 1965. It was the basis, for example of the infamous Winnipeg Statement in which the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops dissented from Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae on artificial birth control. The statement, meant to placate Catholics upset over the encyclical, ended by undermining the bishops’ moral authority on most subjects surrounding sexual morality including in vitro fertilization, abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

The Australian letter’s signatories are academics and public figures, as well known in Australia for their public denials of basic Catholic doctrine and leftist views as their North American counterparts. The signatories include Loreto Sr Veronica Brady, a senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia; Melbourne Catholic philosopher Professor Max Charlesworth; NSW district court judge Chris Geraghty; Fr Frank Martin, and a “commentator on papal issues,” Paul Collins.

Veronica Brady, is an exemplar of the group’s dedication to Catholicism. A professor of literature at the University of Western Australia, Brady, in an interview by National Radio admitted to never having been an “orthodox” believing Catholic and having “always been a crypto Anglican.” Asked if she believes Jesus is the Son of God, she responded, “Well I suppose I’ve got to say he was God in our midst. That’s how the story goes.”

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