THE Great Barrier Reef is sacred and Queensland’s 900,000 Catholics commit a sin if they deliberately damage it.
In an extraordinary move, the state’s seven Catholic bishops yesterday issued a pastoral letter outlining a clear obligation on the part of Catholics to protect the reef.
Titled Let the Many Coastlands Be Glad (from Psalm 97), the letter outlines the sanctity of the reef and backs new green zones restricting fishing.
It also carries Vatican approval, stemming directly from the Pope’s 2001 New Year message where he asked for an "ecological conversion" on the environment – a change of heart before God.
Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby said Catholics who deliberately set about the reef’s destruction committed a sin.
[Full Story]
I wonder if the Archbishop is a Coral Theologian?
7 comments
Hey…do they feel the same passion down there for aborted babies?
I think they do…Cardinal Pell is like Australia’s Bishop Burke…I think he’s been denying communion from manifest sinners while many others were still in seminary.
Bloody Hell.
(Its an Aussie expression – not a swear).
This isn’t surprising at all. Archbishop Bathersby and his northern bretheren have for a long time advocated respect for God’s creation – as long as its vegetative and doesn’t have an immortal soul, that is.
I have friends and family in Queensland who’ve been sharing horror stories for years now.
Sadly, most Catholics are accustomed to liturgical abuses and modernistic heresies, but in Brisbane they go they extra step – because they care. 🙂 In fact, in Brisbane, under + Bathersby cares so much that they’ve allowed witchcraft to flourish – in the church.
Take a look at http://www.cathtelecom.com/news/111/101.html
or
http://www.cruxnews.com/ftm/ftm-26nov03.html
or
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/lepantonline/5/5/content.html
or
http://www.angelfire.com/sk/lepantonline/6/2/content.html
Brisbane is to Australia as L.A. is to America…
This is just stupid.
I”m still laughing over a paper by the NCCB over nuclear power, of all things. They know precisely and absolutely NOTHING about nuclear power.
I think you could probably put all the clergy with even a faint idea of how science works in one small room. And none of them would likely be bishops.
Peace, all.
A few clarifications:
Coral is animal, not vegetable, and the Barrier Reef, far more than a single animal, is indeed endangered.
And just because there is a “hierarchy” of moral absolutes advocated in Catholic tradition, it doesn’t mean that items below number one can’t be addressed. In other words, abortion is not the only mortal sin, and other issues, troubling as they might be to prolifers, don’t have to sit and take a number.
True Todd, but I defy you to find instances of Queensland bishops speaking out in defense of the unborn.
Peace, Credo.
I did find a document on euthanasia with a specific reference against abortion dated 2002. If I dug deeper I’m sure I could find more. Should I try?
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