Editorial

Postscript on the Australian elections

Peter Westmore

Contents - Oct 2013 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Postscript on the Australian elections - Peter Westmore Pope Francis to consecrate world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Frassati Australia and the New Evangelisation - Fr Paul Chandler OSCE Conference: The new face of religious intolerance - Bishop Mario Toso The Catholic Church is holy, despite its members' sins - Audrey English Interview: Why science needs faith - Professor Dominique Lambert The priesthood and the Catholic faith - Fr John O'Neill PP Church of Divine Mercy in Singapore: an amazing discovery - Kazimierz Kozlowski Blessed Jacinta Marto: heroine of Fatima - Cedric Wright Letters: Dr Mobbs replies ... - Frank Mobbs Letters: Exaggeration? - Noel Keith Roberts Letters: Humanae Vitae - Ron Graham Letters: Moral failure - John Wynter Letters: Harmful effects - Richard Grant, Willie Chenhall, Maryse Usher Letters: Creator's plan - Clare Ryan Letters: Culture of life needed - Fr Bernard McGrath Letters: Anti-religious bigotry - Peter Kamsma Events: Spiritual Exercises in Bowral, December 2013 Books: A Book of Saints and Heroes, Heroines, by Joanna Bogle - Val Prendergast (reviewer) Books: COURAGE AND CONVICTION, by Joanna Bogle - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE TIBER, by Fr Gerald O'Collins SJ - Frank Mobbs Books: THE FREEDOM OF LOVE, by Rafael de Santiago - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Support: Launch of 2013 Fighting Fund - Peter Westmore Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Bishop Fisher: Young Catholics must be Christ in the world - Bishop Anthony Fisher

The election of a new Liberal-National Party government in Australia, led by a prominent Catholic layman, Tony Abbott, has attracted attention around the world.

In Australia, there have been several Catholic Prime Ministers from the Labor Party over the past century, but Mr Abbott is the first Catholic Prime Minister from the Liberal Party since that party was formed in the 1940s. Earlier Liberal leaders, including John Howard and Sir Robert Menzies, have come from the Anglican, Methodist or Presbyterian traditions.

Mr Abbott is socially conservative, being a strong supporter of natural marriage and the family, and has deplored the number of abortions in Australia. He is also intensely patriotic. The government he leads contains people from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, and the new prime minister has rightly said that he will govern for all Australians.

Public debate in Australia rarely has an explicitly religious dimension: an exception, of course, being the contentious issue of the application of anti-discrimination laws to believers and religious organisations, including the Christian churches.

But many of the great issues of the day – including sound economic policies, the rights and responsibilities of workers, marriage and the family, the life issues, the role of government in society, immigration, the environment, asylum seekers, the importance of farming and small business – have a profound moral dimension, in addition to their social or economic significance.

Christian values – build around the principles of respect for life, fairness and justice – have an important contribution to make in advancing the interests of all Australians.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 26 No 9 (October 2013), p. 2