Cardinal George Pell
of Sydney has criticised politicians who claim a Catholic identity, yet
consistently defy Church teachings on major issues.

His statement came as
Australia faces into a number of contentious debates this year over same-sex
“marriage” and euthanasia.

In an interview with
the Sunday Herald Sun, Cardinal Pell gave rebuked Australian politicians who
“fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag” but “blithely disregard
Christian perspectives” in their actions.

“If a person says,
‘Look, I’m not a Christian, I’ve a different set of perspectives,’ I disagree
but I understand,” he said. “If a person says to me, ‘Look, I’m nominally a
Christian but it sits lightly with me,’ I understand that.”

“But it’s incongruous
for somebody to be a Captain Catholic one minute, saying they’re as good a
Catholic as the Pope, then regularly voting against the established Christian
traditions.”

Cardinal Pell called
out politicians who endorse secular stances on issues while insisting that
they’re Catholics, saying, “if you’re espousing something that’s not a Christian
position, don’t claim Christian backing for that.”

The Catholic Church
“doesn’t teach the primacy of conscience,” he said, explaining that a person’s
conscience doesn’t trump Church teaching. “You know if somebody said apartheid
was all right, nobody would say, ‘Yes you can say that because of the primacy of
conscience.'”

“To the extent that
on a significant number of issues you depart from Christian teachings you know
it’s incongruous to be billing yourself as a champion of Christian rights,” he
said.

“I’m not telling
people how to vote,” he underscored during the interview. “I’m telling people
how I think they should vote. I’m an Australian citizen and I have as much right
to do that as any other citizen.”