Letters

Elephants in the room

Frank Bellet

Contents - Nov 2010 - Buy a copy now Homily: Feast of All Saints: Benedict XVI's homily - Pope Benedict XVI Canonisation: St Mary of the Cross MacKillop: let the truth be told - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Homosexuality: Courage and EnCourage Chicago Conference: holiness the key - Marie Mason Gendercide: how abortion targets baby girls - Peter Kavanagh Liturgy: Catholic funerals: Bishop Elliott explains Melbourne's guidelines - Bishop Peter J. Eliott Vocations: Priestly and religious vocations upsurge in the US - Tim Drake Saints: Blessed John Henry Newman: why he is worthy of canonisation - Frank Mobbs Ukrainian Catholics: Ukraine's University of the Catacombs - Andrew Kania Letters: Catholic funerals - George Simpson Letters: Benedict XVI in the UK - Arnold Jago Letters: Future Church - Tom King Letters: Vatican II: infallibility - John Young Letters: Infallibility criteria - James Bogle Letters: Definitive or not? - Fr Brian Harrison OS, STD Letters: Declarations - Frank Mobbs Letters: Abortion - Moya and Leo Morrissey Letters: Elephants in the room - Frank Bellet Books: Damien of Molokai: the Leper Saint, by Robert Louis Stevenson - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: HIS NAME IS MERCY, by Fr Ken Barker MGL - Archbishop Denis Hart (reviewer) Books: BLESSED JOHN  HENRY NEWMAN: A Richly Illustrated Portrait, by K.D. and D. Fso - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Fighting Fund progress Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: The woman in another place [Luke 4:38-39; Acts 12:12-17) - Babette Francis

Attending Mass in another suburb recently, I heard the celebrating priest, who is not Australian, pay tribute to our country with the comment that we recently held an election, resulting in a hung parliament "and no-one was killed".

Not so fast: I realise he meant well, but he was not aware of the two elephants of death in the room. One is the fully grown raging elephant, responsible for the loss of life of a multitude of innocent and defenceless babies in abortion clinics, as a result of decisions made following the election of certain political parties. These candidates would have attracted votes even from Catholics.

Now, following the last debacle a few months ago, we have politician Bob "Green" Brown (Mr 9%) who, without the courtesy of any forewarning prior to the election, is poised ready to strike with a private member's bill in favour of euthanasia to be foisted on the public. This of course is the baby elephant, which will grow quickly, particularly since many of those in surveys who say they support euthanasia have proved to be simply in favour of not continuing useless assistance for a dying patient, which, except for the disgusting decision of discontinuing feeding, allows the terminally ill to die naturally. Those and the "let's bump them off" faction should be separated in any responsible and honest survey.

I would claim that more humans have died as a result of elections in so-called civilised countries, than in those where machine guns do all the talking.

FRANK BELLET
Petrie, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 23 No 10 (November 2010), p. 15