Stephen Crittenden: Welcome to the program.’
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint; when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist’. They’re the words of the great Brazilian theologian Dom Helder Camara, but they might just as well have been aimed at Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, who says the Catholic church’s criticism of the government’s WorkChoices legislation is ‘socialism masquerading as justice’.
In a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs, Mr Abbott said that the churches should butt out of politics, and that if they spent more time encouraging virtue in individual believers, and less time demanding virtue from governments we’d have a better society.
Well Tony Abbott has often been critical of Catholic social justice agencies like the St Vincent de Paul Society, and in recent times of Bishop Kevin Manning of Parramatta who says the Howard government’s IR laws are immoral. But the Minister says Industrial Relations isn’t a moral or religious issue at all. In fact he says a political argument isn’t transformed into a moral argument simply because it’s delivered with an enormous dollop of sanctimony.
Well not surprisingly, Australia’s church leaders have hit back. The Reverend Tim Costello has described Mr Abbott as ‘displaying a fundamental misunderstanding of Jesus and Catholic teaching’. And Archbishop Peter Jensen says he ‘defines virtue too narrowly, as though it’s merely about personal morality’.
Well in a few moments we’ll hear from leading Catholic historian and social justice advocate, Bruce Duncan, but first to Tony Abbott himself. And in this interview, recorded yesterday, Mr Abbott says if people are doing it tough in Australia, it’s their own fault because of the unfortunate personal choices they’ve made, or it’s God’s fault, but it’s not the fault of the Howard government.
Mr Abbott, thanks for your time today. In the late 19th century when Pope Leo XIII advocated on behalf of the rights and conditions of working people, he was labelled a socialist, and he responded that his opponents didn’t understand the difference between socialism and Christianity. Do you understand the difference?
Bravo to Mr. Abbott.
Abbott and Costello???