Archbishop of Sydney

What Next?

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
20/8/2006

A truce to end the war in Israel and Lebanon has been declared.  How long it will last is unknown.

So too the success of the Pakistan authorities and the British police in thwarting terrorist attempts to blow up planes over the Atlantic has disappeared from the front pages.

Just recently a politician said to me that we don’t want any of that trouble here in Australia.  Nearly every Australian would be of that view, but saying so does not make it so.  We have to deal with the facts.

What principles, what rules of thumb might we follow to help keep the peace and protect the rights of all Australians?

These issues need public discussion, perhaps even debate, because when trouble is brewing it does not help to do nothing.

Recently the Vatican has recognized this by speaking more publicly about the hostile pressures, even persecutions and death suffered by Christians in some Islamic countries.  There has been a public silence on this for many years, but the situation continued to worsen.

On May 17th, the Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo spoke on the need for reciprocity, a principle often ignored by Moslem states.  Just as we recognize the rights of all religions to worship publicly in Australia without obstacles, to build their places of worship, so too non-Muslims must have these rights in Islamic countries.  The religious rights of minorities are to be respected everywhere.

Catholics have a right to affirm their identity.  Silence about oppression is interpreted by radical Islamists as weakness.

Archbishop Lajolo restated the need for dialogue, regretted the lack of separation between religion and the state in Islamic societies and added that Muslims in Western societies should integrate, without of course any need to abandon their religion.

The Archbishop concluded by reasserting the right to spread the gospel in the Islamic world, and among Muslims generally.

Reciprocity is a key concept for all of us.  As a Catholic leader I am sometimes called on by critics to explain and defend Christian teachings, which some regard as objectionable.  I recognize that I should do this.

So too when terrorists justify their activities by invoking the Quran, it seems legitimate to ask our Islamic friends whether this is justified by traditional Islamic-doctrine, and whether they personally agree with these claims.  Accusations of ignorance or bigotry in response to these queries are disappointing.

Similarly while we recognize the rights of all groups to live where they choose and can afford, no group of old Australians or new Australians has the right to harass their neighbours and drive them away because they are of the “wrong” race or religion.

I have written that the most important struggle is between Islamic moderates and extremists.  If this is correct, then we seem to be in trouble, because most moderate Islamic spokesmen will only criticize outsiders, not their own.