Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Establishing family values

I see that Cardinal Pell is having a go at his Catholic flock for being two faced when it comes to adhering to church philosophy. As I understand the reports, too many Catholics are selectively rationalising their behaviour and attitudes to what the church considers are immoral lifestyle choices

He's described it as Donald Duck heresy, which is a bit unfair because I liked Donald Duck as a kid - indeed he was my favourite comic book character in the days before TV. Yes dear children, there was a time in my life when there was no TV in Western Australia.

But on thinking about it, poor Donald was a bit of a bachelor who had a long running affair with Daisy Duck. I don't think he ever did tie the knot with her. But nor was their any evidence that they ever did "it" together at any time in their fowl lives. I would have thought they were quite good moral examples for Cardinal Pell. They abstained. Furthermore, Mr Duck had been lumbered with raising three illegitimate ducklings, Huey, Dewey and Lewey. They were real ingrates who regularly conspired to make his life a misery. However, they always had a roof above their head and plenty of food, including pizza and candied kumquats, and importantly he wasn't a paedophile. Sure he lost his temper now and then, but I bet Cardinal Pell has done the same before he decided to become perfect.

However, having been raised as a Presbyterian WASP I know what he means. There have been some pretty wicked Catholics wreaking havoc in Western Australia over the past couple of decades. I'm thinking particularly of some really corrupt specimens in the corporate and political arenas. They've swindled and obfuscated their way through life to garner a collection of sycophantic friends and admirers in high places, while at the same time leaving a trail of collateral damage amongst the common folk. Occasionally they've been reigned in by the legal system, but the punishment meted out has rarely matched the social impact of their actions.

Cardinal Pell is concerned about contraception and stem cell research eroding traditional family values. He seems to place such medical developments as part of the swing towards hedonism, that is to say, putting the pleasure of the self and instant gratification before anything else. I think he's partially right, but plenty of Catholic people won't take any notice. There's not a lot he can do apart from forgive them. But really I don't think there is anything to forgive with contraception and stem cell research. I my view the positive factors of both areas outweigh the negative. Prohibition is unworkable, and unreasonable.

We have nine kids in our family. Six boys and three girls. All of them are good people to varying degrees. What I mean by this is that those who willingly help with the washing up are better than the couple of others who don't.

They all suffer from mild cases of hedonism too - iPods, DVDs etc. My wife and I are perplexed where they got it from. Probably TV. Nevertheless, we forgive them for such failings and live in hope that one day they will see the light and reform. ( I mean with the attitude to washing up.) As to how they choose to run their private lives in the future, that is one of the great unknowns for us parents in the free society we enjoy.

We had a birthday dinner for number three son last night. Traditional family values were rolled out in force, along with a pavlova. All our kids were present, plus four girlfriends of our sons. With my wife and I that made 15 people for dinner. Yep, we can seat and feed that many. That's our version of traditional family values.

Maybe I should start a church of my own? Well I know for sure that wouldn't work. The kids are all too independently minded to become anything else other than their own special creations. The most important thing for us last night was that everybody wanted to turn up. That's got to be good enough for us parents.

© MMVII Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.

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