Across the Tasman, Catholic World Youth Day is hogging an inordinate amount of media time. Despite the hype, there are some strains starting to show through the devotional ecstacy and euphoria, however.

Case 1: The No to Pope Coalition won an ambivalent ‘victory’ in the Federal Court of Australia. Two NPC activists, Amber Pike and Rachel Evans, won an appeal over the wording of the draconian attack on civil liberties and free speech imposed within Sydney over the duration of World Youth Day and attendant celebrations this month. On the one hand, the Federal Court ruled that the state legislation’s ‘annoyance and inconvenience’ terms were too broad, but also ruled that bans on stickers, t-shirts and badges were legitimate limits on ‘political communication.’  I suspect this will only add fuel to calls for an Australian Bill of Rights and more robust protection of free speech in that context.

It also shows something profoundly disturbing about the damage to Australian democratic institutions under John Howard. Meaningful religious freedom and free speech demand that no one faith predominate within the collective lives of multicultural/multifaith western societies, and that faith/state separation must be observed to prevent instances of sectarian violence and infringement of democratic values, which has certainly occurred in this instance. Sadly, it seems that Kevin Rudd is no different from Howard in this regard, as his frustration of ACT civil union legislation suggests.

Meanwhile, there’s been a furore over Pope Benedict’s apology to Australian survivors of clergy paedophilia and other forms of sexual violence and abuse, which now may not go ahead as planned, according to Father Federico Lombardi.

Even more damningly, one particularly imbecilic Catholic Bishop, Anthony Fisher (Co-ordinator of World Youth Day itself) was heard to whine that people were getting ‘overly cranky’ about historical incidents. One, it was only twenty to thirty years ago. Two, child sexual abuse often leads to psychological turmoil, self-harm, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviour and suicide attempts in adolescence or later life, to say nothing of the employment and educational disruption that results. Does your church not still consider suicide a mortal sin and human tragedy, Archbishop Fisher?

Indeed, the Daily Telegraph carried a tragic story about the destroyed lives and deaths of two young female victims of clergy paedophilia whose parents are trying to seek an audience with the pope and hierarchy over their personal suffering as the result of the depradations of one rapist priestly sexual predator.

How utterly moronic. No wonder survivors of Australian Catholic clergy paedophilia and sexual violence have so little faith in institutional goodwill, if this is any demonstration of the depth of understanding amongst its church leadership. All sense of decency and moral sensibility appears to have been lost in a mindless celebratory public relations frenzy, at the cost of dealing with grave questions of  institutional accountability, clerical criminality and damage to the lives of others, particularly children who suffered at their hands.

Case 2: Here’s something more encouraging, though. In Melbourne, over half of all polled medical practitioners who responded to Herald-Sun inquiries supported the introduction of some form of regulated voluntary euthanasia procedures, although the Australian Medical Association and Nicholas Tonti-Fillipini denied the validity of the poll in question. Still, as the Victorian State Parliament is currently debating a Green-led private members bill that deals with voluntary euthanasia, it makes fascinating reading.

Recommended:

Grant MacArthur: “GPs back call for mercy killings” Melbourne Herald Sun: 16.07.08: http://www.news.com.au

“Protestors Win Challenge to Protest Annoyance Laws” Daily Telegraph: 15.07.08: http://www.news.com.au

Danny Rose: “Pope might not say sorry for abuse” Daily Telegraph: 17.07.08: http://www.news.com.au