Now you see it, now you don't

One of the difficult things in a busy day is to remember everything that you need to do and everything that has happened. How many times do we lose track of the important things, let alone the marginal ones? Well, it's on that basis that the media does business and dictates to you and I what we should think about certain situations in the world.

If you remember, a few weeks ago there was a huge outcry (and by huge I mean everyone working for an Australian newspaper) about Cardinal Pell's comments to catholic politicians regarding their moral duty to respect and defend human life when deciding public policy. This lead to one of the most violent outbreaks of obvious anti-religious and anti-catholic vitriol in recent times. One member of the New South Wales (Pell's state) legislature vowed to have Card Pell hauled before a commission in order to enquire into his comments "that they may be in contempt of parliament." (FYI for the member of the house- I think his comments were contemptuous of the opinions of some parliamentarians). Anyway,  the whole Church-State argument was dug-up again and paraded around like a golden calf. Now, no problems with the idea of the separation, just with how they like to use it as a weapon against the Church. The basic idea is that 'good churchmen' (as defined by the state) are seen and not heard and would never dream of saying anything against the infallible opinions of politicians as they might hurt their conscience. The Church was clearly told to keep its distance from affairs of state. (The article was published in the Sydney Morning Herald: Pell Investigated for Possible Contempt, 16/06/2007).

Just yesterday the same newspaper ran a story about the bishop that the Chinese state had appointed in the official catholic church in China. And you know what was missing-- not one mention of Church-State separation. Apparently the golden calf was in for some repairs that day and wasn't available for public viewing.

People, that's how the media operate. One day it's a show-down over  the ONLY issue that matters, the next day it's the only issue that is forgotten. Now you see it, now you don't.