The Roman Catholic Church, the largest religious organisation in the world, can be, has been, and is, an influence for good. In the 1980s, during the reign of the Polish Pope, Australia was persuaded to accept, as humanitarian entrants, Poles living within the nation. Elsewhere, those qualifying for this category had to be outside their country of nationality; and to have a genuine fear of discrimination by the authorities. In the 1990s, I met one of these Poles, and he was thankful for his entry into Australia.
During the 1960s and 1970s, through both my work and my extended (and in-depth) voluntary contribution to my trade union, I acquired quite a number of ‘micks’ (Irish Catholics) as my drinking mates. These included 2 Kennedys and 3 O’Briens. The Catholic-controlled union awarded me a Meritorious Service Award in the early 1980s.
All the above is to establish that, as a metaphysical Hindu, I accept all the major religions as equal in their potential. Their adherents all pray to the same God, do they not? (However, could I expect reciprocity of tolerance?)
Moving on: I can understand the Vatican denying contraception and other practices related to the ‘netherlands’ of women. I can also understand the Vatican’s desire to increase its followers through these restrictive practices.
However, through imposing, via government policies, these edicts on contraception, abortion, and voluntary euthanasia over the whole population (especially when the Roman Catholics are a small proportion of the total population), the so-called ‘prods & masons’ will also increase in number. Any difference will reflect the number of children produced per family. In the 1960s and 1970s I was told by my Catholic colleagues that Catholic priests demanded (as was then their reported wont) that each Catholic family produce a minimum of 4 offspring.
There is also the faulty logic of the Catholic Church competing with other faiths. Why seek political power over other faiths? Is this Church saving souls through the moral guidance of its followers, or is its primary role to assert control over the diverse paths to out Creator? To what end? All Earthly benefits expire at death, do they not?
Like all of one’s co-created fellow-humans, each of us will surely ‘wing’ our way to the Afterlife (Heaven, if you wish) at death, untrammelled by the weight of transient wealth, pomp, and Earthly power.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 