Notes: Saturday, July 2-Wednesday, November 30, 2016

1. A couple of recent items regarding The High Court of Australia

1.1 Dr. Maley on the High Court's Gay Marriage ruling

See The Centre for Independent Studies' (C.I.S.'s) Occasional Paper 147 The High Court, Democracy and Same Sex Marriage, by Dr. Barry Maley (a Senior Fellow at The C.I.S.), published by The C.I.S., Sydney, July 2016:

https://www.cis.org.au/publications/occasional-papers/the-high-court-democracy-and-same-sex-marriage

or go straight hither:

https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2016/07/op147.pdf

(That Paper came to my attention via Dr. Maley's opinion piece "DEFINITION NOT MADE IN HEAVEN" on p. 12 in the "COMMENTARY" pages of The Australian, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, Second Edition, No. 16100, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited, available at The C.I.S.'s website under the headline "Marriage deserves a referendum, not a quickie plebiscite", with the same date:

https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/marriage-deserves-a-referendum-not-a-quickie-plebiscite

Labels: Constitution, G.L.B.T., H.C.A., law, marriage

1.2 The plebiscites in 1898 and ’99 which "were held in each of the Australian colonies to ensure that the people approved of the Constitution before it was enacted in Britain" "are treated by the High Court as part of the basis for popular sovereignty in Australia."

The quotations in that headline come from the opinion piece "Plebiscite a casualty in the debate over marriage laws", by Prof. Anne Twomey (a Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Sydney), dated October 7, 2016, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/plebiscite-a-casualty-in-the-debate-over-marriage-laws/news-story/7847b6a78619996ac6435e78c30d59ec

(That article came to my attention via the version printed on p. 28 in the "LEGAL AFFAIRS" pages of The Australian, Friday, October 7, 2016, Second Edition, No. 16163, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited; if I recall correctly, the headline was "Let's not demonise plebiscites in the heat of the debate over our marriage laws".)

Labels: H.C.A., morals

2. "The Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) Scholarship Foundation will award 20 scholarships for disadvantaged students in 2016. The ABCN Scholarship Foundation, at the request of our donors, allocates some scholarships in specific categories including Indigenous, refugee, LGBTI and State-based scholarships. … Early in 2016, the Citi Pride network proposed raising funds to support a student identifying as LGBTI, in recognition of additional challenges faced by LGBTI students in their senior years of schooling. The scholarship is funded by individual donations from Citi and other corporate employees, with Citi matching individual donations."

The quotation, excluding my ellipsis, in that headline comes from the "ABCN Scholarship Foundation Statement August 2016", available for download from the "News and Media Releases" webpage at the A.B.C.N.'s website:

https://www.abcn.com.au/about-us/news-and-media-releases

Or go straight hither:

https://www.abcn.com.au/sites/default/files/ABCN%20Scholarship%20Foundation%20Statement%20August%202016.pdf

See also item 6.3 of this issue of "Notes".

Labels: education, G.L.B.T.

3. "The first stage of the National Domestic and Family Violence Bench Book is available on the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration's website."

The quotation, including its hyperlink, in that headline comes from the media release "New resource to assist victims of family violence", dated August 18, 2016, downloaded from the official website of the Attorney-General for Australia (The Hon. Sen. George Brandis Q.C.):

https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2016/ThirdQuarter/New-resource-to-assist-victims-of-family-violence.aspx

Labels: feminism

4. H.M. Victorian Government's Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships 'learning resources' are available here:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/Pages/teaching-and-learning-materials.aspx

Or go straight hither:

http://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/ResourcePackage/ByPin?pin=2JZX4R

See also the Media Release "Victoria Leading The Way On Respectful Relationships", dated October 10, 2016, attributed to the Victorian Minister for Education (The Hon. James Merlino M.P.), downloaded from the official Premier of Victoria website:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victoria-leading-the-way-on-respectful-relationships/

(and also available under the same headline (though with all the letters capitalised) and with the same date at Mr. Merlino's own website:

http://www.jamesmerlino.com.au/media-releases/victoria-leading-the-way-on-respectful-relationships/)

Labels: education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, Victoria

5. Dr. Morrall on a supposed change in Christian political philosophy:

… The ‘conventional’ notion of many Christian thinkers about human government as part remedy, part punishment for the Fall of Man, led to a depreciatory view of political institutions and activity.
The position began to change round about the time of the economic, social and cultural revivals of the tenth and subsequent centuries. With the loss of distrust for human reason and its achievements came a gradual strengthening of belief in the natural character of political life as beneficial for man and corresponding to an inherent need of his being. Classical sources familiar to the medieval philosophers of the twelfth century, particularly Cicero and the Timaeus dialogue by Plato, had spoken of Nature as the inspiration of the life of men in society. But the biggest single source of the revival of belief in the naturalness of political activity was the return of knowledge of Roman Law as collected by Justinian in his Corpus of Civil Law. This was beginning to be studied in the Italian legal schools, particularly Bologna, in the eleventh century. Throughout the Middle Ages Bologna was to remain the great centre of legal studies for both Civil and Canon Law.
[italics in the original, my ellipsis (and deleted dashes where a word spanned two lines; for the original format of the text, see the Appendix to this post),
pp. 158 f., Ch. 6 ("EPILOGUE: MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS DILEMMA"), The Medieval Imprint: The Founding of the Western European Tradition, by John B. Morrall, published by Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1970]

Labels: morals

6. Prof. van Onselen, approvingly (or at least sympathetically), on Conservativism as Retarded Progressivism: "Conservatism in its purest form is about slowing down the pace of change to ensure that adjustments in policy settings when they do happen are well thought through."

(Note that by using the word 'retarded' I intend no allusion to what is these days called being developmentally delayed.) The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Fringe-dwelling reactionaries tarnish true conservatism", by Prof. Peter van Onselen, dated October 22, 2016, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/peter-van-onselen/fringedwelling-reactionaries-tarnish-true-conservatism/news-story/84662346c74564581fd974b3d61873df

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline (though with all the letters capitalised), with the same author, on p. 22 in the "COMMENTARY" pages of the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, October 22-23, 2016, First Edition, No. 16176, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: liberalism

7. "It’s always been the case that the scheme has been designed, and these changes are also designed, to try and ensure that as many mothers are participating in the workforce and are able to re-participate after the birth of a child, having provided for a fair amount of time to bond with the child after birth." (The scheme in question is H.M.A. Government's paid maternity leave scheme.)

The quotation in that headline is attributed to the Federal Minister for Social Services (The Hon. Christian Porter M.P.) in the interview transcript "ABC Radio National Breakfast with Fran Kelly", dated October 24, 2016, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/abc-radio-national-breakfast-with-fran-kelly-0

Labels: economic rationalism, economics, family, feminism, P.P.L., tax, work

Reginaldvs Cantvar
St. Andrew's Day, A.D. 2016

Appendix: Item 5's quotation in its original format:

[p. 158]
… The ‘conven-
tional’ notion of many Christian thinkers about human
government as part remedy, part punishment for the
Fall of Man, led to a depreciatory view of political in-
stitutions and activity.
The position began to change round about the time
of the economic, social and cultural revivals of the tenth
and subsequent centuries. With the loss of distrust for
human reason and its achievements came a gradual
strengthening of belief in the natural character of poli-
tical life as beneficial for man and corresponding to an
[p. 159]
inherent need of his being. Classical sources familiar to
the medieval philosophers of the twelfth century, par-
ticularly Cicero and the Timaeus dialogue by Plato, had
spoken of Nature as the inspiration of the life of men
in society. But the biggest single source of the revival of
belief in the naturalness of political activity was the re-
turn of knowledge of Roman Law as collected by Justin-
ian in his Corpus of Civil Law. This was beginning to be
studied in the Italian legal schools, particularly Bolog-
na, in the eleventh century. Throughout the Middle
Ages Bologna was to remain the great centre of legal
studies for both Civil and Canon Law.
[italics in the original, my ellipsis; note that, in the original, the first line of the second paragraph was indented,
pp. 158 f., Ch. 6 ("EPILOGUE: MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS DILEMMA"), The Medieval Imprint: The Founding of the Western European Tradition, by John B. Morrall, published by Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1970]

Notes: Monday, March 28-Friday, July 1, 2016 (part 1 of 2)

1. "ParentsNext will assist parents with young children in planning for future employment by arranging activities and connecting parents to local services to prepare them for work by the time their children are at school."

The quotation, including its italics, in that headline comes from the Media Release "ParentsNext - helping parents with young children prepare for work", dated Wednesday, January 6, 2016, issued by The Hon. Sen. Michaelia Cash (Federal Minister for Employment, Minister for Women, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service), downloaded from the Employment portfolio Minister’s Media Centre website:

https://ministers.employment.gov.au/cash/parentsnext-helping-parents-young-children-prepare-work-0

See also

• the "Parents Next" (sic) "landing page" at H.M.A. Government's Department of Employment website:
  
  http://www.employment.gov.au/parentsnext

• the "Grant Guidelines for ParentsNext", available here:
  
  http://www.employment.gov.au/information-grant-guidelines-parentsnext
  
  or go straight hither:
  
  https://docs.employment.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/grant_guidelines_for_parentsnext.pdf
  
  In Chapter 2 ("About ParentsNext"), §2.1 ("Introduction"), p. 2 (8 in your reader), that document notes that "[f]or many people, in particular, many women, becoming a parent can involve more time spent caring for children and less time in the paid workforce."

• the "Q & As for the Applications for Grant Funding for ParentsNext" (also called "ParentsNext Grant Funding Proposal Question and Answers"), available here:
  
  http://www.employment.gov.au/information-grant-guidelines-parentsnext
  
  or go straight hither:
  
  https://docs.employment.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/parentsnext_q_and_as_2.pdf
  
  This document notes, like the Grant Guidelines, that "[f]or many people, particularly women, becoming a parent can involve more time spent caring for children and less time in the paid workforce" (p. 3, §1.4), and question 1.24 (p. 7) says, in part, "[w]e have run projects in the past and some women did not have child care as they have not been eligible for child care with Centrelink".

• the "Grant Guidelines for ParentsNext Webinar" PowerPoint presentation, available here:
  
  https://docs.employment.gov.au/node/35611
  
  The fifth slide, headed "Policy rationale", has a bullet point saying "Added impetus: Australia’s G20 commitment to reduce the gap between male and female labour force participation.", and the text accompanying that slide goes into a little more detail, noting, among other things, that "it is expected that the majority of parents in ParentsNext will be women"

Labels: economic rationalism, economics, family, feminism, work

2. In one respect, The Greens are a better friend (or at least less of an enemy) to large families than Labor and the Liberals are.

I refer in that headline to The Greens' opposition to the abolition of the large-family supplement. See The Australian Greens Dissenting Report in the Senate's Community Affairs Legislation Committee's February 2016 report on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Measures) Bill 2015 [Provisions]:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Measures/Report

See also the respective speeches of Senn. Fifield, Moore, and Siewert recorded in the Hansard for Wednesday, February 24, 2016 (under "Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Measures) Bill 2015" under the two "BILLS" tabs at the left of your screen when you go to the following webpage):

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2Faf5e9bce-9bd9-45dc-bd87-c1d5218a5d66%2F0000%22

Labels: economics, family, tax

3. Mr. Lawrence on Family Tax Benefit B and horizontal equity:

… What we point out in paragraph 27 of our submission is that family tax benefit B is a hybrid kind of payment.

There was an interesting article by Judith Sloan in The Australian about a month ago where she talked about family tax benefit part B. She framed it, at least part of it, in terms of a tax relief measure. What she was saying—and other people have said this but she perhaps crystallised it—is that family tax benefit B is a provision that gives some horizontal equity to the tax system. In Australia, as we well know, we do not have family tax. The family is not a unit and the household is not a unit for tax purposes. Prime Minister Howard was very good in articulating the basis for giving some support to families through the tax system. His point was, and the same with Judith Sloane, that if somebody is prepared to give part of their income to support somebody else then they should get some recognition for it. There should be some tax relief, because it has a social value. If we give a donation to an organisation that looks after homeless children, we get a tax deduction for it, because it is recognised in the system that there is an advantage in that for society. Civil society, or the institution of society, is enhanced by the sharing of income.

So you get this notion of horizontal equity. We have used the tax rebate originally as one means of modifying the implications of just having an individual as a tax unit. What we now have is a hybrid. It makes it a bit difficult sometimes to work out how you should deal with it. Our view is that because there is a value in looking after children in the home and because there is an argument in support of horizontal equity then in principle there should be no cut-off point in the support. But the reality is that if you are going to support the people at the bottom, the most vulnerable, you might not be able to afford that benefit. If you reduce it back, you might lose the obvious horizontal tax equity features. That is an issue that I think has to be taken into account in this debate and it sometimes can be confusing as to how you deal with it.
[my ellipsis symbol,
Hansard transcript of a public hearing, on February 18, 2016, for the Senate's Community Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2015 (the quotation comes from Mr. Brian Lawrence, who represented the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations (A.C.C.E.R.)):
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22committees%2Fcommsen%2F9b2b26ff-6726-4185-935e-06385bc5c0aa%2F0000%22
(A.C.C.E.R.'s submission is available at Parliament's website (but Mr. Lawrence seems to have had in mind section, rather than page, 27, on p. 8):
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Payments_No_2/Submissions)]

Labels: economics, family, tax

4. Some recent items regarding "respectful relationships"

4.1 Mr. Muehlenberg on Early Childhood Australia (E.C.A.) and its Start Early "teaching resource"

See the blog posts "Get Your Hands Off Our Children" by Mr. Bill Muehlenberg, dated March 6, 2016, downloaded from his CultureWatch blog:

http://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/03/06/when-the-wicked-target-our-children/

and "The Sexual Anarchists Targeting Our Children", by the same author, dated March 8, 2016, downloaded from the same website:

http://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/03/08/the-sexual-anarchists-targeting-our-children/

There is a Start Early homepage at E.C.A.'s website:

http://startearly.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Labels: childcare, education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, sex ed

4.2 Stop it at the start (a "$30 million national campaign designed to help break the cycle of violence against women and their children") "will unite families and communities around young people to positively influence attitudes towards respectful relationships and gender equality."

The quotations in that headline come from the media release "Stop it at the start", dated April 20, 2016, downloaded from the Federal Minister for Women's website (the latter quotation was attributed directly to the Minister, The Hon. Sen. Michaelia Cash):

http://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/cash/2016/stop-it-start

(That media release is also available at the official Federal Minister for Social Services website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/media-releases/stop-it-at-the-start)

See also the transcript "Stop it at the Start - Campaign Launch Press Conference", dated April 20, 2016, downloaded from the same website:

http://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/cash/2016/stop-it-start-campaign-launch-press-conference

(and also available at the other website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/stop-it-at-the-start-campaign-launch-press-conference)

In that transcript, Sen. Cash also reminds her audience of how

last year the Women’s Safety Ministers, we wrote to the Education Ministers, and we recommended that Respectful Relationships, that programme, be imbedded in the school curriculum. We were very pleased that then the Education Minister’s determined that it would.

As for the respective policies of Federal Labor and The Greens concerning 'respectful relationships', see

• p. 18 of the booklet "Australian Women. Labor’s Positive Policies", available at Labor's 100 Positive Policies website here:
  
  http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/australian_women_labors_positive_policies
  
  and elsewhere here:
  
  https://cdn.australianlabor.com.au/documents/ALPWomen_Brochure.pdf

• the webpage "Preventing Violence Against Women" at The Greens' website here:
  
  http://thegreens.org.au/prevent-violence
  
  whence you can download the booklet "PREVENTING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN" (see p. 2 concerning the matter at hand):
  
  http://greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/20160620%20Preventing%20Violence%20Against%20Women%20Plan.pdf

Labels: childcare, education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, sex ed

4.3 Ms Barry on "respectful relationships education"

See the opinion piece "Respectful relationships education: teaching kids respect" by Ms Mary Barry (Chief Executive Officer of Our Watch), dated April 21, 2016, downloaded from Our Watch's website:

http://www.ourwatch.org.au/News-media/Latest-news/Respectful-relationships-education-teaching-kids-r

Labels: childcare, education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, sex ed

5. Some sources of information about the Martyrs of Carmes

See the Trove scans of the following newspaper articles (none of which had bylines):

• "HEROIC MARTYR BAND. Death Preferred to Disloyalty. THE POPE’S EULOGY." in The Freeman's Journal, Vol. LXXVI, Sydney, Thursday, December 2, 1926, p. 40:
  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116779424
  (That article also contains information about Bl. Noel Pinot, another martyr during the French Revolution.)

• "News From France: The August Pilgrimage to Lourdes: THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND FAVOURITISM." in The Catholic Press, No. 827, Sydney, Thursday, October 26, 1911, p. 8:
  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105984410

• the article with an indistinctly-scanned headline beginning in the farthest left-hand-side column of p. 4 of The Catholic Press, No. 906, Sydney, Thursday, May 1, 1913:
  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105157670/

• "ROME DAY BY DAY. Notes and News." in The Catholic Press, No. 1056, Sydney, Thursday, March 23, 1916, p. 18:
  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105164309

See also pp. 67-72 of Acta Apostolicæ Sedis (A.A.S.) Vol. VIII (A.D. 1916):

http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-08-1916-ocr.pdf

and pp. 415-425, 439-447, and 450-452 of A.A.S. Vol. XVIII (A.D. 1926):

http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-18-1926-ocr.pdf

(The latter volume also contains information about the aforementioned Bl. Noel Pinot.)

Labels: France, saints

6. Some recent Gay-related items

6.1 "An Australian first Pride Centre is the centrepiece of the Andrews Labor Government’s continued investment in services and facilities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Victorians."

The quotation in that headline is the first paragraph of the Media Release "Victoria Continues To Lead The Nation On Equality", credited to Victoria's Ministers for, respectively, Equality (The Hon. Martin Foley M.P.) and Health (The Hon. Jill Hennessy M.P.), dated April 27, 2016, downloaded from the official Premier of Victoria website:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victoria-continues-to-lead-the-nation-on-equality/

See also the Media Release "Australia’s First Pride Centre", credited to the Victorian Premier (The Hon. Daniel Andrews M.P.), dated April 20, 2016, downloaded from the same website:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/australias-first-pride-centre/

and the A.B.C. news report "Victoria to establish Australia's first Pride Centre for LGBTI community", dated Apil 20, 2016:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/victoria-to-be-home-to-australias-first-pride-centre/7343932

(While gathering that information, I came across this remarkable document:

Equality back on the agenda: Labor’s LGBTI Policy)

Labels: G.L.B.T., Victoria

6.2 "A Shorten Labor Government will appoint a full-time LGBTI Discrimination Commissioner to the Australian Human Rights Commission."

The quotation in that headline is the first paragraph of the media release "Labor To Appoint A New Champion For LGBTI Australians", issued jointly by The Hon. Sen. Penny Wong (Leader of H.M.A. Opposition in the Senate, Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment) and The Hon. Mark Dreyfus Q.C. M.P. (Federal Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Arts Minister), dated Saturday, May 21, 2016, downloaded from Mr. Dreyfus's website:

http://markdreyfus.nationbuilder.com/labor_to_appoint_a_new_champion_for_lgbti_australians

See also

• the prepared text of the speech by Sen. Wong for the "Rainbow Labor National Day of Action and Campaign Launch" in Melbourne on the same date, downloaded from Sen. Wong's personal website:
  http://www.pennywong.com.au/speeches/rainbow-labor-national-day-of-action-and-campaign-launch-melbourne/

• the transcript of Sen. Wong's and Mr. Dreyfus's press conference on the same date and in the same city, downloaded from the same website:
  http://www.pennywong.com.au/transcripts/press-conference-melbourne-4/

• the webpage "Fighting Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender And Intersex Australians" at Labor's 100 Positive Policies website:
  http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/lgbti_discrimination_commissioner_fact_sheet

Labels: A.H.R.C., G.L.B.T., human rights

6.3 On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, His Excellency The Governor of New South Wales "met with Mr Geoff Selig, Board Director, and Mr Sean Linkson, Chief Executive Officer of The Pinnacle Foundation, an organisation established to provide scholarships to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Queer students who are marginalised or disadvantaged."

The quotation in that headline comes from the webpage "Wednesday, 25 May 2016" at the official Governor of New South Wales website:

https://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/governor/vice-regal-program/wednesday/

Labels: G.L.B.T., N.S.W.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, A.D. 2016

Notes: Tuesday, December 1-Thursday, December 31, 2015

1. Some changes to this blog's sidebar

Just before posting this issue of "Notes", I added a link to What's Up With Francis-Church? to my "Blog links" section, added a link to Catholica to my "Discussion links" section, moved the "News and opinion links" section to between the "Miscellaneous links" and "Magisterium" sections, and deleted the "Posts" and "Comments" sections.

Labels: blogs

2. "The bottom line is we want families to be able to access more affordable child care so they can get to work."

The quotation in that headline comes from the transcript of a radio (2GB) interview by Mr. Ray Hadley of The Hon. Scott Morrison M.P. (Federal Treasurer) on November 30, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Morrison's Ministerial website:

http://sjm.ministers.treasury.gov.au/transcript/059-2015/

Similarly, the Federal Minister for Social Services, The Hon. Christian Porter M.P., said shortly before Mr. Morrison that

a better allocation of some[ "welfare"], and a modest amount in terms of the total of Family Tax Benefits is to reprioritise that to, generally speaking, to the same families but through another mechanism that is better, more efficiently subsidised childcare so that you engender workforce participation.
[my square-bracketed interpolation,
"Sky News To the Point" interview transcript, November 26, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:
http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/sky-news-to-the-point]

See also

• the Joint Transcript "Joint press conference - Child Care Reforms", dated Wednesday, December 2, 2015, downloaded from the Ministerial website of The Hon. Sen. Simon Birmingham (Federal Minister for Education and Training):
  
  http://ministers.education.gov.au/birmingham/joint-press-conference-child-care-reforms
  
  (That transcript is also available at Mr. Porter's Ministerial website under the apparently mistaken heading "ABC 720 Perth with Simon Birmingham", and also at Sen. Birmingham's personal website, under the heading "Joint Press Conference - Christian Porter", dated Thursday, December 3, 2015 (perhaps the date of its uploading to that website rather than the date of the press conference in question).) In the introduction he gave at that press conference, Sen. Birmingham said that
  

  Ultimately, we believe it[ (that is, "the Jobs for Families child care reforms")] will deliver better outcomes, lift workforce participation, help encourage more people into the work force, help encourage greater volunteering, help encourage people to study, get greater results from the $40 billion that the Government expects to invest in child care over the next few years, more than $3.2 billion of additional expenditure.
  
  Our number one focus is overwhelmingly on families and children – supporting families and parents in their working ambitions, supporting children accessing child care to have support for the early learning opportunities it provides. …

  In answer to a question from a journalist about why the reformed child care subsidy still goes to high income—even millionaire—households, Sen. Birmingham said that
  

  the greatest analysis into Australia's child care and early learning system undertaken in recent years occurred via the Productivity Commission inquiry into child care and early learning. And that inquiry recommended that there should be a floor in relation to child care subsidy that applied to all family circumstances to make sure that there was an appropriate incentive for workforce participation. You have to remember that when you are talking about family income levels it's not necessarily the family income level that matters most to a workforce participation decision in relation to child care; it's the secondary income earner that is often the decision point. And so by putting a floor in relation to the child care subsidy, there is always still an incentive there and some assistance there to help the secondary income earner step in.

  and he expressed similar reasoning in answer to similar questions a couple of days before that press conference; see his answers to the first two questions in the transcript "Interview - RN Breakfast - Alison Carabine", Monday, November 30, 2015:
  
  http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Media-Centre/Interview-Transcripts/ID/2884/Interview--RN-Breakfast--Alison-Carabine
  
  and his answers to the first, second, and second-last questions in the transcript "Interview - Doorstop", Monday, November 30, 2015:
  
  http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Media-Centre/Interview-Transcripts/ID/2882/Interview--Doorstop
  
  (In fairness, however, see the antepenultimate paragraph of the interview transcript "Interview - Sky News - PM Agenda - David Speers", dated Friday, November 27, 2015, downloaded from Sen. Birmingham' s personal website:
  
  http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Media-Centre/Interview-Transcripts/ID/2880/Interview--Sky-News--PM-Agenda--David-Speers)

• the Joint Media Release "Family Tax reform to better support Australian children", dated December 2, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:
  
  http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/media-releases/family-tax-reform-to-better-support-australian-children
  
  and also available at Sen. Birmingham's Ministerial website:
  
  http://ministers.education.gov.au/birmingham/family-tax-reform-better-support-australian-children
  
  (and at his personal website.)
  
  This is the first paragraph of that media release:
  

  The Turnbull Government today introduced the Jobs for Families Child Care package and Family Tax Benefit bills to Parliament to encourage workforce participation and provide a more flexible, accessible child care system.
  [italics in the original]

  and later on, Mr. Porter is quoted as saying that
  

  It makes sense to redirect the money from the [end-of-year FTB-B ]supplements back into families but in a way that allows parents to re-enter the workforce.

  which is clearly reminiscent of my earlier quotation—that begininning with "a better allocation of"—from him.
  
  Also of interest in that media release is Sen. Birmingham's mention of H.M.A. Government's proposal "to refer the legislation to the relevant Senate Committee". That committee is presumably the Community Affairs Legislation Committee, and the relevant inquiry is presumably that into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2015:
  
  http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Payments_No_2
  
  though I didn't see any mention there of childcare.

• the Media Release "New child care system embraces primary carer grandparents", dated November 30, 2015, downloaded from Sen. Birmingham's Ministerial website:
  
  http://ministers.education.gov.au/birmingham/new-child-care-system-embraces-primary-carer-grandparents
  
  (Also available at his personal website.)

• the Media Release "Changes in Family Tax Benefit to give children a strong start", dated November 30, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:
  
  http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/media-releases/changes-in-family-tax-benefit-to-give-children-a-strong-start

• the news report "Jobs for Families Child Care Package legislation introduced", dated Wednesday, December 2, 2015, downloaded from H.M.A. Government's Department of Education and Training website:
  
  http://www.education.gov.au/news/jobs-families-child-care-package-legislation-introduced

• the opinion piece "Government payment cuts threaten single-income families", by Marcelle Mogg (she "is the chief executive officer of Catholic Social Services Australia"), dated December 27, 2015, downloaded from the Sydney Catholic Weekly's website:
  
  https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/government-payment-cuts-threaten-single-income-families/
  
  (That article came to my attention via the version printed under the headline "Payment cuts threaten single-income families", with the same author, on p. 6 in the "NEWS" pages (though the article in question was a "Comment" piece) of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, December 27, 2015, Vol. 73, No. 4807, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd., and another version is available under the headline "Cuts leave two-parent families in the cold", dated December 16, 2015, at Eureka Street (Vol. 25, No. 24):
  
  http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=45821#.VoISXv_4Nes)
  
  In that article, Ms Mogg writes that
  

  The Government has provided little justification for moving away from the longstanding policy that family payments are made in recognition of the extra costs that families face compared to others with similar income.
  
  The disparity means two-parent families will be better off financially if they separated. Is that the kind of incentive we want built into government programs?

Labels: childcare, economic rationalism, economics, family, tax, work

3. More information on the imminent changes to Victoria's Special Religious Instruction programme is available at the webpage "Special Religious Instruction 2016" in the "Curriculum" pages of the "School Policy & Advisory Guide" section of H.M.V. Government's Education and Training website:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/curriculum/Pages/sri.aspx

See especially the "Overview of Changes" and "Information for Parents" Word documents, both dated November 2015, available for download at the bottom of that webpage.

Labels: education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, Victoria

4. Two points of interest from the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development inaugural Progress Report:

• "Stamping out STIs in the Cook Islands", p. 45

• "Catholic Church supports sexual health program", p. 54

The Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development First Progress Report 2012-2015 is available here:

http://pacificwomenreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/PW_AR_Dec7_Approved_Final_E-Copy.pdf

See also the media release "Progress Report of Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development", dated December 7, 2015, available at the Ministerial website of The Hon. Steven Ciobo M.P. (Federal Minister for International Development and the Pacific):

http://ministers.dfat.gov.au/stevenciobo/releases/Pages/2015/sc_mr_151207.aspx?w=%2FF8ZUhcj%2B3O78bKr86LCHA%3D%3D

and the prepared text, under the headline "Launch of the Pacific Women Inaugural Progress Report", of a speech by Mr. Ciobo, dated December 7, 2015, available at the same website:

http://ministers.dfat.gov.au/stevenciobo/speeches/Pages/2015/sc_sp_151207.aspx?w=%2FF8ZUhcj%2B3O78bKr86LCHA%3D%3D

Labels: abortion, contraception, feminism, foreign affairs

5. "“’Nostra Aetate had eliminated any language referring to hope for a conversion,” he[, viz. "Joseph Sievers, a professor at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and a member of the[ Vatican] commission[ for Religious Relations with the Jews] that produced" "THE GIFTS AND THE CALLING OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE",] said, “but it did not explicitly say ‘we do not want to convert Jews.’ This document wants to make that clear.”"

The quotation, excluding my bracketed interpolations, in that headline comes from the report "New Vatican Document Says Church Doesn't Seek Conversion of the Jews", by Mr. Francis X. Rocca, dated (or at least last updated) December 10, 2015, downloaded from The Wall Street Journal's website:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-vatican-document-says-church-doesn-t-seek-conversion-of-the-jews-1449784616

A similar interpretation of that document, or at least of one of its logical consequences, seems to have been expressed by a well-known Jewish participant in Jewish-Catholic dialogue—see the article "Catholics should not seek to convert Jews: Vatican", no byline (though the stated source was "CATHOLICCULTURE.ORG"), p. 27, the Sydney Catholic Weekly, December 20, 2015, Vol. 73, No. 4806, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd.—but one apparently well-informed reporter disputes that interpretation, writing that the

claim that the document explicitly says that the church does not want to convert Jews is not accurate.
["The Vatican has said Catholics don't need to convert Jews: What does this mean?", by Florence Taylor, dated December 11, 2015, downloaded from Christian Today's website:
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/the.vatican.has.said.catholics.dont.need.to.convert.jews.what.does.this.mean/73296.htm?print=1]

The document in question is available in English here (though I don't know what the original language is):

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20151210_ebraismo-nostra-aetate_en.html

Labels: Jews, Roman Curia

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Thursday within the Octave of Christmas, and the feast of St. Sylvester I., Pope, Confessor, A.D. 2015

Notes: Wednesday, September 30-Monday, November 30, 2015 (part 1 of 2)

1. Some recent announcements by H.M.A. Government concerning foreign affairs

1.1 Australia will "provide $7 million over three years to support the United Nations’ Joint Programme for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health in the Pacific."

The quotation in that headline comes from the media release "Promoting Economic Growth in the Pacific", dated September 29, 2015, downloaded from the website of the Minister for Foreign Affairs (currently The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P.):

http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150929a.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D

(That iniative came to my attention via this article at The Australian's website.) According to a press release issued jointly by the United Nations Children's Fund (U.N.I.C.E.F.), the United Nations Population Fund (U.N.F.P.A.), and the World Health Organisation, Ms Bishop "noted that the AU$7 million investment will support the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health". That Strategy can be downloaded from its official website here:

http://globalstrategy.everywomaneverychild.org/

Or go straight hither:

http://globalstrategy.everywomaneverychild.org/pdf/EWEC_globalstrategyreport_200915_FINAL_WEB.pdf

(And the aforementioned press release is available under the headline "Joint Media Release: Australian commitment to UN joint programme for Pacific mother, child and adolescent health kicks off investment in Global Goals for Sustainable Development", dated September 30, 2015, at U.N.I.C.E.F.'s website:

http://www.unicef.org/pacificislands/1852_24727.html

and under the headline "A JOINT PRESS RELEASE: Australian commitment to UN joint programme for Pacific mother, child and adolescent health kicks off investment in Global Goals for Sustainable Development", same date, at the U.N.F.P.A.'s website:

http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/2015/09/30/12827/a_joint_press_release_australian_commitment_to_un_joint_programme_for_pacific_mother_child_and_adolescent_health_kicks_off_investment_in_global_goals_for_sustainable_development/)

Labels: abortion, contraception, feminism, foreign affairs

1.2 Were it to be elected to "the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2018-2020 term", Australia's "focus would be on empowering women and girls, strengthening governance and democratic institutions, promoting freedom, freedom of expression, and advancing human rights for all", and it "would be unrelenting in [its] efforts to secure abolition of the death penalty."

The quotations, excluding my square-bracketed replacement of the word "our", in that headline come from the text prepared for the spoken national statement by Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs (The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P.) in the United Nations General Assembly (seventieth session), dated September 29, 2015, downloaded from the official Minister for Foreign Affairs website:

http://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2015/jb_sp_150929a.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D

See also the media release "United Nations Security Council & Human Rights Council", dated September 29, 2015, downloaded from the same website, in which Ms Bishop says similarly that

We are an international leader in advancing the rights of women and girls, strengthening governance and democratic institutions, and promoting freedom of expression.

As a member of the Human Rights Council, Australia would bring a clear focus on addressing human rights violations and holding perpetrators to account. Australia would also be a leading advocate for global abolition of the death penalty.
[http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150929.aspx]

Labels: death penalty, democracy, feminism, foreign affairs, human rights, liberalism

2. "The tensions for parents, educators and children in building a sustainable culture of ethical and respectful relationships early in life" is the project title of taxpayer-funded (to the tune of $198992) research which "hopes to move the debate around sexuality and sexual relationships away from being viewed as problematic for young people to that of building a culture of ethical and respectful relationships in early life."

The quotations in that headline come from the Western Sydney University (W.S.U.) "RESEARCH DIRECTIONS" flyer "Building Children’s Ethical Relationship Skills with Parents and Educators", dated December 2011, presumably published by W.S.U.'s Office of Research Services, downloaded from W.S.U.'s website:

https://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/248057/071211_KidsEthicalRelationships_Robinson.pdf

(That project came to my attention via the print version of the article "Let's talk about sex, knowledge, health and well-being, baby", by Fran Molloy, dated October 12, 2015, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/tertiary-education/lets-talk-about-sex-knowledge-health-and-wellbeing-baby-20151008-gk44ht.html?skin=text-only)

See also Prof. Robinson's staff profile here or here.

Labels: feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, sex ed

3. On the second day of the recently-concluded Synod, H.H. The Pope made His Holiness's "first direct intervention at the Synod in the course of the past two years"; in that intervention, The Pope said "that thus far the only official Synod documents which enjoy full ecclesiastical approval are the two discourses he himself delivered at the opening and closing of the Extraordinary Synod last October, as well as the "Relatio Synodi" or final document of the Extraordinary Synod which he approved."

The quotations in that headline come from the article "Pope Francis makes first direct intervention; was Cardinal Erdö undermined?", by The Rev. Fr. Nicholas Gregoris, dated October 6, 2015, downloaded from The Catholic World Report's website:

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/4239/pope_francis_makes_first_direct_intervention_was_cardinal_erd_undermined.aspx

(That article came to my attention via this blog post by Fr. Zuhlsdorf.) Interestingly, the Vatican revoked Fr. Gregoris's press credentials the next day; see the article "Vatican revokes Catholic priest’s press credentials after he challenged archbishop", by Mr. Patrick B. Craine, dated Monday, October 12, 2015, downloaded from LifeSiteNews.com:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-vatican-revokes-catholic-priests-press-credentials-after-he-challe

Labels: Francis Bergoglio

4. "ultimately, the package is about trying to devise ways to increase female workforce participation amongst mums, single mothers, mothers in couple families. Historically, we know that that is occurring, we would like to keep it occurring, it can and should be a great engine room of the Australian economy and it’s great way to increase family wealth and prosperity."

The quotation in that headline comes from the transcript of an interview of The Hon. Christian Porter M.P. (Federal Minister for Social Services) on Sky News on October 22, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/sky-news-pvo-newsday

(That transcript is also available here, at Mr. Porter's electorate website.) See also

• The joint media release "Revised Family Tax Benefit measures to fund $3.5 billion child care investment", issued by Mr. Porter, The Hon. Scott Morrison M.P. (Federal Treasurer), and The Hon. Sen. Simon Birmingham (Federal Minister for Education and Training), dated Wednesday, October 21, 2015, available at the respective Ministerial websites of Mr. Porter:
  
  http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/media-releases/revised-family-tax-benefit-measures-to-fund-35-billion-child-care-investment
  
  Mr. Morrison:
  
  http://sjm.ministers.treasury.gov.au/media-release/007-2015/
  
  and Sen. Birmingham:
  
  http://ministers.education.gov.au/revised-family-tax-benefit-measures-fund-35-billion-child-care-investment

• the transcript of the joint media conference which (conference) was given by Messrs. Morrison and Porter and Sen. Birmingham on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 in Canberra; the transcript is available at the respective Ministerial websites of Mr. Porter:
  
  http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/joint-media-conference-with-the-hon-scott-morrison-mp-treasurer-and-senator-the-hon-simon-birmingham-minister-for-education-and-training
  
  Mr. Morrison:
  
  http://sjm.ministers.treasury.gov.au/transcript/021-2015/
  
  and Sen. Birmingham:
  
  http://ministers.education.gov.au/joint-press-conference-revised-family-tax-benefit-measures-fund-35-billion-child-care-investment
  
  and also at the latter's personal website:
  
  http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Media-Centre/Interview-Transcripts/ID/2861/Joint-Press-Conference--Canberra--Scott-Morrison-Christian-Porter

• the Hansard transcript of Mr. Porter's speech in the House of Representatives at 0911 hrs. on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 moving the second reading of the Bill in question, namely the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill 2015:
  
  http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fb15942d6-e86a-4a01-8094-d46337096349%2F0013;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fb15942d6-e86a-4a01-8094-d46337096349%2F0013%22

• the Hansard transcript of a question without notice asked in the House of Representatives at 1407 hrs. on Thursday, October 22, 2015 and Mr. Porter's answer to it:
  
  http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F93a1fa0d-0b2c-453c-bbeb-b700dd4555c5%2F0101%22

• the joint media release "TURNBULL’S BIG FAIL ON FAIRNESS FOR FAMILIES", issued by The Hon. Bill Shorten M.P. (Leader of H.M.A. Opposition), The Hon. Chris Bowen M.P. (Shadow Federal Treasurer), and The Hon. Jenny Macklin M.P. (Shadow Federal Minister for Families and Payments and for Disability Reform), dated Tuesday, November 10, 2015, available at Ms Macklin's official website here:
  
  http://www.jennymacklin.net.au/turnbull_s_big_fail_on_fairness_for_families
  
  or go straight hither:
  
  https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/jmacklin/pages/572/attachments/original/1447125856/TURNBULL%E2%80%99S_BIG_FAIL_ON_FAIRNESS_FOR_FAMILIES.docx_10112015.pdf?1447125856
  
  (That media release is also available, in HTML format, at Mr. Shorten's official website:
  
  http://billshorten.com.au/turnbulls-big-fail-on-fairness-for-families)
  
  Mr. Bowen's last answer in a press conference in Canberra on the same date is also worth reading because it deals with the link between the Family Tax Benefits package and the soon-to-be-released child care package. The transcript of that press conference is available at Mr. Shorten's website:
  
  http://billshorten.com.au/doorstop-canberra-12
  
  and at Ms Macklin's website:
  
  http://www.jennymacklin.net.au/transcript_parliament_house

• the Hansard transcript of the appearance on November 19, 2015 by Mr. Brian Lawrence (Chairman, Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations) at the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill 2015:
  
  http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=COMMITTEES;id=committees%2Fcommsen%2F068adf10-f588-402a-a5b6-c607bb8d507e%2F0004;query=Id%3A%22committees%2Fcommsen%2F068adf10-f588-402a-a5b6-c607bb8d507e%2F0000%22
  
  (The text of Mr. Lawrence's opening statement that day is also available at the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Media Blog:
  
  http://mediablog.catholic.org.au/family-tax-benefits-under-attack-legislation-before-parliament-would-have-a-major-impact-on-the-living-standards-of-families/
  
  and came to my attention via the version of this Sydney Catholic Weekly editorial which was printed in yesterday's issue of the Weekly.)

• the official webpage of the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill 2015
  
  http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Payments
  
  whence you can download, among other things, the inquiry report and the official submission of the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations (the latter is especially worth reading for the historical perspective which it provides).

Labels: economic rationalism, economics, family, tax, work

Reginaldvs Cantvar
St. Andrew's Day, A.D. 2015

Surprise, surprise

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,,24241361-5001021,00.html

According to Wednesday’s Sydney Daily Telegraph,

MORE than two-thirds of working mums would rather be at home with their children.

This would come as a surprise only to the most hard-core feminist theoretician. Let’s face it, the explosion in mothers’ work-force participation figures over the past forty years has far more to do with the pursuit of economic growth and the spread of consumerism than the liberation of women. Feminism is just the fig leaf with which this truth is covered up; economic rationalism is the real philosophy that has underpinned these changes.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

How long till the C.D.F. issues a Notification on neo-Americanism?

Also in yesterday’s Catholic Weekly were some extracts from the ‘Acton Lecture’ delivered by Rev. Fr. Robert A. Sirico at the Centre for Independent Studies. The report is not online yet, so I direct you to the speech itself:
http://www.cis.org.au/events/cis_lectures/acton_2008_sirico.pdf

Fr. Sirico is from the dreadful Acton Institute; I will not post a link here but you can find one at Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s blog. This Institute appears to advocate what I would call neo-Americanism, an updated form of Americanism that extends beyond the religious libertarianism of the original and attempts to incorporate economic libertarianism into Church social teaching.

The lecture begins fairly inoffensively, with “an assertion of two distinct realms: the temporal and the ecclesiastical. In this concept, both the law and the civil magistrate are to be respected, even prayed for.” ‘Distinct’ is the key word, and perfectly appropriate, though of course we must not go as far as to advocate the desirability of their separation as a principle:

That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error.
(St. Pius X, Vehementer Nos)

That is, the ideal is that the State as a person confesses Christ, and every person under the State confesses Christ, and therefore, since the two ‘perfect societies’ of Church and State overlap in their membership, they ought to be united in mutual concord and unanimity of action.

Fr. Sirico notes perceptively that “[w]hat is really at issue here is the problem of authority”, and identifies that “Christianity did not, however, see the origin of authority as lying in the state, and it did not see the state as the source of law, much less of morality”. Clearly God is the origin of authority and of law, and the State must acknowledge this authority, do God the homage that He is owed for delegating His authority, and makes its civil laws correspond to the Divine Law.

Indeed, the reliable Rev. Fr. Francis J. Connell C.SS.R. makes very clear that Church-State relations are actually a secondary issue:

In other words, the real point at issue is not the relation between the State and the Catholic Church but rather the relation between the State and Christ the King.

That is, union of Church and State follows from submission of State to its King, Christ.

So far, so good. And one could forgive Father’s rather strange, utilitarian notion of a Christian vision of

a society in which people leave old professions and adopt new ones,take on vocations as priests or nuns, become educated and advance within the culture, become merchants and capitalists who produce wealth

(my emphasis)

or his fanciful depiction of the Dark Ages as a some kind of proto-capitalist utopia:

The so-called Dark Ages saw the origins of the water mill and the windmill, used for capitalistic production. Monastic estates were used for the domestication and production of fish, and for cloth-making. Monasteries were the first modern institutions of complex capitalistic production.

But eventually he makes his errors quite plain:

[Constantine] and his successors certainly went too far in making the Christian faith the official religion and using public resources for the construction of churches. But when one looks at this history, we need to carefully distinguish between unjust practices of the present day and the roots of what would eventually lead to what we now know as modern-day freedom. It was Christianity itself, and not atheism, secularism or materialism, that first advanced the idea that the state and the Church were distinct and separate entities. The concept that institutions could flourish in the absence of civic approval is what led to the creation of the university, the monastery, the hospital, the rule of law in courts, and the flourishing of science and institutional and international charity.

(my emphasis)

So Fr. Sirico is really just offering what I call crypto-secularism: he turns his back on 1 500 years of Church practice and 150 years of permanently-valid doctrine (which only needed to be written down in response to challenges from the revolutionaries of 1789 and 1848). Preposterously, he argues that

Indeed, it is Christianity that lies at the root of the body of ideas we know today as classical liberalism, which can be summed up in four essential claims: all people have rights that cannot be abrogated; society flourishes most when the state is a resource of last resort; economic advance is desirable and made possible through free exchange; and the social peace is best maintained when religion and the state are separated.

Let’s take a closer look at these ‘four claims’:

1) “all people have rights that cannot be abrogated”: yes, but the object of any right can only ever be what is true and good.

2) “society flourishes most when the state is a resource of last resort”: this is just one of the assumptions of economic rationalism; it has no place in Christian doctrine.

3) “economic advance is desirable”: not in itself.

4) “the social peace is best maintained when religion and the state are separated”: false in principle, possibly true in certain circumstances.

When Fr. Sirico speaks of “the authentic Christian liberalism of the nineteenth century, which in turn connects backwards in time to the Middle Ages, to Augustine, to the Church Fathers, and finally to the words of Jesus”, one wonders whether the Anglicans are the only ones prone to ‘ecclesial amnesia’: does he not know that the ‘Liberal Catholic’ political movement was condemned unequivocally by the Popes of the time? Indeed, Fr. Sirico analysis of currents in nineteenth-century Catholic political thought is far too simplistic: he says that

In the mid- to late nineteenth century, at a time when democracy was rising, the Papal States were under serious strain, and radical political movements were on the move, two general camps emerged within the Catholic Church. On one side, there were the ultramontanists, who favoured the temporal power and regarded the idea of religious liberty as a fateful surrender to secularism and modernism. On the other side were the liberals, who embraced religious liberty and argued that papal infallibility should be embraced only in the strictly defined terms related to its own competency of faith and morals, but not to politics or economics.

Concessions to false religions can only ever be a toleration based on circumstances, and a concession in principle is indeed a “fateful surrender to secularism and modernism”. And his reading of the Syllabus of Errors is simply not supported by the text:

Even Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors could be read as compatible with an embrace of liberty if we recognise that while it condemned the view that the Church must be universally separated from the state (understood as the state confining religion to the purely private sphere—the goal of today’s radical secularists), it tolerated the view that the Church can be made prudently and advantageously distinct from the state.

Here we see confusion in his argument: that “the view that the Church can be made prudently and advantageously distinct from the state” is tolerable is not in question (and ‘distinct’ is the wrong word anyway, since Church and State are distinct), while in fact it is Fr. Sirico’s views on Church-States relations at the level of principles that Bl. Pius IX was condemning.

When Fr. Sirico describes ‘liberation theology’ as “essentially a baptised form of Marxism” it is hard to ignore the savage irony that what he and the Acton Institute advocate is really just a ‘baptised form’ of libertarianism and economic rationalism. How can they not see this? Indeed, Marxism and economic rationalism aren’t fundamentally all that different: they share the same foundation, namely materialistic determinism, though while Marxism focuses on the social level, at which circumstances in the factors of production determine the course of history (historical materialism), economic rationalism focuses on the individual, with man conceived of as homo economicus, with a utility function into which ones plugs the numbers and determines his behaviour.

We see this materialism crop up again when Fr. Sirico writes off the era of Christendom as being one in which the fact that

the tyrant professed Christianity was an incidental fact: he was merely using the culturally dominant religion as a cover for his true ambition

and it is an insult to the likes of Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, St. Edward the Confessor and St. Louis IX.



What is it with people trying to graft onto Tradition that which can never organically be a part of it? Why the constant conformity to the spirit of the age? Why can they not be content simply ‘to hand on what they have received’?

What is perhaps most telling about Fr. Sirico’s position is the complete absence of any reference in this lecture to one of the fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching, namely the common good. Search for keywords like ‘common good’ or ‘public good’ or public welfare or common welfare and you will find nothing. Indeed, one must ask of Fr. Sirico: does he agree that the common good is the proper end of the State? Does he agree that the common good is the relevant criterion for determining when to restrict liberty (an important question given that his lecture was, after all, on the topic of ‘Must Religion be a Threat to Liberty?’)? Does he agree that the State is a juridical and moral person that is capable of acknowledging God as the source of its authority, of the blessings that it enjoys and of its very existence, i.e., that the State really can be confessional? Just what is this man’s theory of the State?

Reginaldvs Cantvar

On this day in history …

(Well, yesterday actually, since this is the small hours of Saturday morning)

I note that it was on August 8, 1984 that New South Wales permitted shopping on Friday night and Saturday afternoon (History section, The Daily Telegraph). This was lamentable in itself because it represented another concession to economic rationalism and consumerism and an encroachment on family time for the workers whom it affected, and also because it signified that Sunday trading was imminent.

With the fortieth anniversary of Humanæ Vitæ, we hear talk that as much as 80% of Catholic couples in America, for instance, might be on contraception; certainly there is widespread dissent from this teaching. But one wonders how many Catholics dissent from the requirement to abstain from servile work (or from availing oneself of others’ servile work) on Sunday. My a priori expectation would be that a good 90% would feel no compunction at doing so, and maybe fewer than 10% might scruple at it if it were to infringe on Sunday worship.

When was the last time one heard Priests or Bishops denouncing Sunday labour for its grave sinfulness? (If you have an example please mention it in the combox.) We hear condemnations of ‘racism’, ‘unsustainable development’, or whatever is the flavour of the month, but as regards sinful Sunday labour, the best we might expect would be expressions of unease at the 24/7 consumerist economy.

Yesterday was also the Feast of St. John Mary Vianney, the great Curate of Ars. I will never forget the image of Sunday labour that he offers:

“When I see people driving carts on Sunday, I think I see them carrying their souls to Hell.”

See http://saints.sqpn.com/stj18009.htm for more of his thoughts on the matter.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Preparing for an activist vice-reign

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24108604-421,00.html

I read with great interest an article in last Friday's Sydney Daily Telegraph by Mr. Steve Lewis (available on-line under the Courier-Mail masthead, link above) about certain changes taking place in the Governor-General's official staff. The Official Secretary, Mr. Malcolm Hazell, despite being regarded as "resolutely non-partisan", was dismissed by the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Mr. Rudd denied any involvement, and it is not too great a leap of logic to infer that Ms. Quentin Bryce, the Governor-General-Designate, was behind the sacking.

(And I was amused to note that "More recently, Ms Bryce raised eyebrows after visiting Therese Rein, the wife of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, at her office in Brisbane last Friday." They would have been two peas in a pod.)

So what does this imply for our expectations about Ms. Bryce as Governor-General? I think we ought to prepare for an activist, 'agenda-setting' viceroy; in particular, the feminist agenda. This demands like-minded, even partisan, assistants, secretaries and speech-writers, hence Mr. Hazell's dismissal, and no doubt he will only be the first. Her Excellency's greatest pre-gubernatorial distinction appears to have been becoming one of Australia's top-ranking political correctness commissars ('Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner' or some such high-sounding but mediocre office) and is well-known as a member (one of the first, in fact) of the genteel, pearl-necklace-wearing wing of feminism that has been so influential in the corporate and civic worlds (in contrast to the noisy but irrelevant feral feminists in academia, like Germaine Greer). Ludicrously, she is of the opinion that "it can be argued I believe that Jesus was a feminist" (see here for that and other insights), which clearly verges on blasphemy.

When we hear Ms. Elizabeth Broderick (cut from the same cloth as Ms. Bryce, and her successor as Sex Discrimination Supremo (Suprema, or would that be sexist?)) say that "There is no question that legislated paid maternity leave is a basic human right" we can dismiss it as par for the course. But imagine what resonance it will have when coming from the mouth of the viceroy. We will see an inglorious new chapter open up in the cooperation of feminists like Ms. Bryce and economic rationalists like Mr. Rudd in driving every last mother into menial, low-paying work. And I'm sure it will be a suitable softening-up of the populace for the inevitable popularly-elected 'President' with a popular mandate of his or her own, at which point the 'Washminster' (Washington/Westminster) system of ours will break down entirely.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

"There is no question that legislated paid maternity leave is a basic human right."

So says Ms. (I use that title reluctantly) Elizabeth Broderick, one of Australia's chief political correctness commissars (from whose ranks comes our next Governor-General).

What nonsense.

But in the interests of trying to work out whether there could possibly be some logic beneath what appears on the surface to be a perfectly absurd statement, let's think it through a bit. How might compulsory paid maternity leave be justified?

1) The State ought to support families: yes, but it does not follow from this that paid leave is a basic right (indeed, if done through the tax system it only means a transfer of welfare among families, not an increase in overall welfare)

2) Since child-bearing is done by women, no paid leave would mean relative discrimination against them: but the husband does share in the burden of lost wages, and in any case, paid paternity leave would probably be the next step.

I see no conceivable basis for paid maternity leave as a human right. And what is truly sinister about this is that, since one infers from a right a corresponding duty, it implies that mothers have a duty to be in the paid work-force. And this is a cruel lie. What we see here, and have seen over the last forty or so years, is feminists like Ms. Broderick serving as tools in the hands of the economic rationalists, for whom work-force participation is a key variable in the frenzied pursuit for economic growth.

Reginaldvs Cantvar