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I've often wondered about how Catholicism functions in other places. I'm not at all saying that it's all positive, and here ideologies vary from parish to parish, school to school; Catholicism is most certainly a site of huge conflict. But since Catholicism in Australia came mainly from Ireland it's been political since the Fenians were transported. Unlike say France, it's been the religion of the working classes, and that's sometimes had profound effects. The Catholic split of the Labour party vote under Bob Santamaria kept Labour out of power for decades, for instance. In the Depression Catholics were associated with Bolsheviks as objects of Protestant fear and loathing (the other major church here is of course the Anglican Church, which is the church of the ruling class, as the historian Michael Cathcart calls them - the landed wealthy or the Squattocracy, which is still a factor in the Liberal/Country coalition, ie, the ones currently in power). These influences have declined markedly in the past 20 years, but they're still there and still functioning. But at the moment it's fair to say that the Churches - the Uniting Church, the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church in particular - are among the very few public institutions that speak out constantly about the increasing poverty in Australia, the increasing class divisions and other problems like the refugee crises. I was raised in the Anglican church. I was in fact baptised Catholic, but I had no idea of this until I was an adult: my mother was a Catholic until the doctor told her that if she had any more children she would die, and the priest told her that she would go to hell if she used contraception. Which is I guess a classic story, and I know many of those, and worse ones. Even so, I've sometimes thought I'd make quite a good Christian if only I could believe in God; it took me a long time to work out how deeply steeped I actually am in Christian ideology. Shame about St Paul. Best Alison > > >> As a father of a four-year-old, I'm just beginning to face some of the >> contradictions you so fully point out. I wish our Catholic schools here in >> Upstate New York were as liberation aligned! >> >Gerald -- well, down here in Albany, capital of upstate nueva york, my 9 >year old goes to the Free School, the closest I've come across to a true >Summerhill school -- & there are some other interesting alternative schools >in the area, though, as you say,well no, as I say, the Katholik ones are >dreadfully fascisoid, uniforms & all, & of the hell & brimstone kind of >variety -- not much liberation theology -- Pierre > >________________________________________________________________ >Pierre Joris >6 Madison Place >Albany NY 12202 "É melhor ser cabeça de sardinha >Tel: (518) 426-0433 do que traseiro de baleia" >Fax: (518) 426-3722 >Email: joris@ albany.edu >Url: <http://www.albany.edu/~joris> >____________________________________________________________________________ >_ > >> -- Alison Croggon Home page http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/ Masthead online http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/