Letter to the Editor: Adelaide Advertiser 3.9.15
Dear Letters Editor,
The Catholic population of Australia was 25.3% at the 2011 Census. We know, from Morgan Research, that religious affiliation is rapidly falling — and particularly so for Catholics, following revelations from the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.
One wonders whether the Vatican’s ‘Jubilee of Mercy’ (Pope calls to pardon abortions, The Advertiser, 2/9/15) is too little too late to stem the Catholic exodus. Pope Francis may have declared a pardon for women, and for doctors who provide the service, but it won’t stop the zealots outside abortion clinics who denigrate both women and staff on a daily basis.
This pompous short-term gesture of ‘Mercy’ ignores all the other Church ills — contraception, equality for women, and the 12th century Vatican decision to create a new law of celibacy. These are all clear examples of man-made dogma. They simply compound what contemporary Biblical scholars have shown — that Catholicism is not built on “Peter the Rock” but on the unstable foundations of Palestine’s desert sand.
Brian Morris
Plain Reason
Plain Reason: Promoting science, reason, logic and critical thinking.