News

Wednesday August 11, 2010


Cardinal Pell Says Green Party Like Watermelons: Green Outside, Red Inside

By Kathleen Gilbert

SYDNEY, August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A row has erupted after Cardinal George Pell of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia criticized the Green Party, which supports abortion, euthanasia, and same-sex “marriage,” as “sweet camouflaged poison” that represents an “anti-Christian” point of view. The archdiocese stood strongly by the comments after Green leader Robert Brown implied that Pell lied about the party’s position, and claimed to be more in touch with Catholic and Christian sentiment than the Cardinal.

When asked by young adults about how to vote in the upcoming elections, Pell recounted in a column Sunday that he did not endorse a specific party but encouraged his audience “to examine the policies of the Greens on their website and judge for themselves how thoroughly anti-Christian they are.”

The prelate also pointed out that Green leader Robert Brown helped author a book in which it was claimed that “humans are simply another smarter animal, so that humans and animals are on the same or similar levels depending on their level of consciousness.” The book was coauthored by Princeton University philosopher Peter Singer, a notorious supporter of infanticide and euthanasia.

“This Green ethic is designed to replace Judaeo-Christianity,” Pell warned.

Some Green politicians, he noted, “have taken this anti-Christian line further by claiming that no religious argumentation should be permitted in public debate.” “Not surprisingly they are often inconsistent on this issue, welcoming Christian support for refugees, but denying that any type of religious reasoning should be allowed on other matters,” wrote Pell.

He called one wing of the Greens “like water melons, green outside and red inside,” saying that “a number were Stalinists, supporting Soviet oppression.”

“Naturally the Greens are hostile to the notion of the family, man, woman and children, which they see as only one among a set of alternatives,” he wrote. “They would allow marriage regardless of sexuality or gender identity.” Pell also criticized the party’s environmentalist platform, saying that while “we all accept the necessity of a healthy environment,” the party’s ideas “are impractical and expensive, which will not help the poor.”

Brown himself shot back at the Cardinal claiming a majority of Christians support same-sex ‘marriage’ and thus that the party has maintained the Christian ethic better than Pell.

“The good archbishop has forgotten the ninth commandment, which is `thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour’,” said Brown in comments published by the Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s lost the ethic of the golden rule and the Greens have kept it. The Greens are much closer to mainstream Christian thinking than Cardinal Pell. That’s why he’s not standing for election and I am.”

He called Pell’s position in favor of Catholic Church teaching on homosexuality “discriminatory and biased,” and claimed that “The majority of Catholics support equality in marriage (as do) the majority of Christians in Australia.”

In response, the Sydney archdiocese issued a release correcting Brown’s claims and calling him a “master of spin.” “It seems [Brown] wants not only to save the environment, but also to re-define Catholic beliefs. It is a pity he is better at spin than at checking his facts,” wrote Katrina Lee, the archdiocesan director of communications.

Lee shot down as factually false Brown’s claims that Pell opposes the Building the Education Revolution scheme and more compassion for asylum seekers, saying that the Cardinal in fact supports both. She also criticized Brown’s claim to be in touch with Catholic and Christian favor for same-sex “marriage,” writing that “This would be news to most Australians.”

“If this really were the case it is unlikely that both major parties would have gone to the lengths they have to rule it out as an election issue,” wrote Lee. “It is telling that the Greens have no dedicated family policy on their website.”

Prior to the exchange, the Australian Christian Lobby complained that the Green Party snubbed their questionnaire, refusing to answer 18 of the 24 questions. “Even the Sex Party answered honestly the questions. I don’t agree with their positions but at least they were honest enough to actually put their replies forward and respond you know whereas the Greens weren’t,” said ACL managing director Jim Wallace.