WELLAND, New Zealand June 28, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal Thomas Williams, Archbishop of Wellington has issued a strong warning in an essay about his home country’s pervasive modern liberalism.
Describing the effects of liberalism’s stronghold over New Zealand’s political landscape Cardinal Williams writes, “We have rejected the moral sustenance of the past and are attempting to live on the junk food provided by a bankrupt liberalism..Traditional beliefs and values have been systematically subverted by the derision and outright hostility to the whole Judaeo-Christian ethic upon which civilization has been based for the past two milleniums.” Lamenting the various outgrowths of modern Liberalism in his country, Cardinal Williams specifically notes the issues of abortion, increased support for euthanasia and same-sex marriage as some of its greatest evils. Referring to abortion he writes, “The probity of medical practitioners is put into question by those..who issue spurious medical certificates attesting the presence or the risk of mental illness so as to ‘legitimize’ abortions.” Addressing same-sex marriage, he writes, “The definition of marriage is being widened to include all manner of relationships that are anything but marital.” Yet the Archbishop’s essay does offer his countrymen hope for the restoration of “health and sanity to society.” To this end he makes several recommendations including, “. . . challenging a culture asserting the exaggerated individualism that what one does is no one else’s business;” and, respecting and protecting “the intrinsic dignity and value belonging to each life . . . from its beginning to its end.” see full text of essay at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3574992&thesection=news&thesu bsection=dialogue mw