under the patronage of St Joseph and St Dominic

By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, remembering Zion;
on the poplars that grew there we hung up our harps. . . Ps 136

THE ELECTION, THE BISHOPS & THE PRO ABORTION PARTIES

Not one political party which has abortion as an element of its party platform made ground in the Australian Federal election decided on Saturday, 9 th October 2004.

The Labor Party, far from succeeding to government, lost ground. The Democrats were effectively destroyed at the ballot box, and the Greens, for all the support they were able to muster around the country, will see their power to control the Senate stripped from them from July next year now that Barnaby Joyce of the National Party has secured a Senate seat in Queensland, the fourth seat for the Coalition in that State.

Mr Joyce has announced his concerns over the public funding of abortion through Medicare and has said that this has to stop.

The admonitions from Australia’s Catholic bishops, that people should vote for the party which will give more equable treatment to refugees and which will pay more respect to the principles of socialism––read the Labor Party––while they remained silent about the moral evil of voting for the same party because of its pro abortion policy, were ignored by the majority of voters.

There was another note which lends strength to the view that morality played a big part in this election. The figures for Ross Cameron, the sitting Liberal member for the NSW seat of Parramatta, went against the national trend when he lost the votes of many because of his public admissions of infidelity to his wife. Remarkably, the papers are full of his adultery, a weakness in men that they are usually happy to tolerate.

All of this should give confidence to those many Australian citizens who have been engaged in prayer and acts of self denial for the good of this splendid country and for the conversion of heart of its Catholic bishops. The next public novena for Australia’s Catholic bishops will take place over the nine days commencing on Tuesday, 30 th November and ending on 8 th December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Details will be put up on this website shortly.

Michael Baker
30 th October 2004