My
article has indeed been the subject of legal threats from Greg Smith
SC, John McCarthy and his son, Nathanial. I have been supplying
information to the Herald’s lawyers for two days. They will not
confirm that they will use the information I have supplied to defend
the piece. I am saddened by Bruce Wolpe’s lack of defence, as he is not
only well known to us personally but someone of high intelligence who
knows something about persecution and the manner in which religion may
be abused to persecute others.

In a short article for the Herald
there is a huge amount of detail that one cannot go into. The “holy
alliances” include people who are members (co-operators or other
assorted hangers on) of Opus Dei. They include Neo Catechumenate Way
types, Disciples of Jesus, Emmanuel Covenant, Society of Saint Peter
types and others from non-Catholic backgrounds. The point is not what
card they carry, but what actions they take in public life.

Cardinal
Pell’s “democratic personalism” speech last year was inspired by one
Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Crikey
readers may do well to have a rummage around some of Acton’s editorials to see what it is that the new “neo con men” of Australia will be promoting:

As an example of the connection between commerce and conviction, see here.

And
for a clear description of the alleged “Catholic” view that the
foundations of liberal democracy are incompatible with Catholicism,
here’s a comment from Fr. E. Cahill, S.J, quoted in the Seattle Catholic, A Journal of Catholic News and Views:

In the theory of the Liberal State, personal human rights
are acknowledged, and indeed exaggerated, for they are regarded as
paramount, the rights of God and the limitations set by the divine law
being disregarded. In actual practice, however, all individual rights
are merged in or made subservient to the power of the majority, by
which the actual government of the State is set up. Hence the governing
authority again becomes omni-competent, although this omni-competence
is upheld in virtue of a title different from the title of a deified
emperor or a civil body identified with the deity.