Asylum boats as ‘vehicles of hope’

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 12 Jan 2014.

In a diatribe against conservative religion in Australia, Sydney Morning Herald writer Anne Summers has pointed out the growing gap between Pope Francis and the views of Cardinal George Pell and Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The Pope asked his cardinals to advise him on “pastoral challenges to the family,” including divorce, birth control, cohabitation and gay marriage.  Cardinal Pell is on record as “finding no merit to reform on any of these issues.”

And in contrast to Mr Abbott’s “Stop the Boats” sloganeering, Pope Francis spoke of tragically drowned asylum seekers as “immigrants,” describing how their boats, “vehicles of hope … became vehicles of death.”

Mr Abbott said in his Christmas email: ”We are a good and generous people and I hope this Christmas we will remember everyone who is doing it tough and lend a hand where we can.”

Those doing it tough include asylum seekers and refugees coming to our shores.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.