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Have Christian religious values shaped civil law in Australia as much as they have in the United States?
Dear Friends,
The visit of Pope Benedict to the United States and the United Nations is proving to be unexpectedly interesting from a range of different perspectives. I have to confess Catholica is slightly delayed today because I've been tuned into the EWTN live webcasts of his addresses this morning to academics and administrators from Catholic higher learning institutes in America and his address to leaders of other faiths. Enduring the accompanying commentary from EWTN is, I must say, a bit of a trial but if one can suppress one's emotions about that the actual live coverage itself is excellent.
His comments on the differences between the secular cultures of Europe and the United States in particular have generated considerable interest amongst those who have been following the lengthy discussion in recent years of the threat to religious values posed by secular culture. One of the most interesting observations was made by Sandro Magister yesterday with the brief comment and a more lengthy comment from Pope Benedict which Magister has taken from a book Benedict wrote in 2004 when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger and which we present as our lead commentry today. I think Benedict's observations might provide some fuel for an interesting discussion on the different situation we have here in Australia. <Read today's commentary>
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