Cardinal-Imam George Pell, who threatened Catholic politicians with excommunication indirectly (and exclusion from the sacraments directly) if they voted in favour of stem cell research being permitted in a new Bill, is liable to being held in contempt of the NSW Parliament, just as his west Australian counterpart, Archbishop-Imam Hickey has been. This appears to be a coordinated campaign by the Catholic Church, as commenters noted similar actions in Scotland and Wales in my first post.
In other news, the Catholic Church is opposing Catholics getting involved in Amnesty International, in case they might support the freedom of women to have abortions. I think the signs are clear. A Catholic Church run by a previous Chief Inquisitor is definitely moving to the extreme again, and is becoming fundamentally undemocratic and opposed to liberty of conscience. Expects religious conflicts to follow suit.
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They've tried it here in the U.S. too, pressuring Catholic politicians over support for legalized abortion. Despite our religion-soaked culture, it seemed to have had little effect, partly because the American version of Catholicism has long been used to quietly ignoring the Vatican on such issues as birth control and partly because the politicians knew resisting such attempts would not hurt them with even anti-abortion Protestants.
I think the Church remains steadily undemocratic and opposed to liberty of conscience. What changes is the illusions of certain prelates about their power to enforce their will in the more developed nations.
Y'know, I used to feel like rising up and defending the Chorch when the fundies would make up stuff about the beliefs. But no more. This time it has gone too far for even this Atheist of the Catholic God.
I'm done. They are left to fend for themselves. (I am dead sure that they are going to miss me.)
Here in Canada, when Bill C-38 was in the works, there was a bit of pressure to refuse communion for the Prime Minister, but his parish priest maintained it was a matter of respecting personal conscience. I wish more Catholic officials would publicly take a tolerant stand on this issue...well, any issue...
I suspect that most Roman Catholics will do what they have almost always done.
They'll listen to the prelates and then make up their own minds.
In Scotland there is a large Catholic community, including politicians, and they don't vote on the orders of the church (much to the annoyance of the Bishops).
Vatican II broke the power of the papacy and however much the leadership may wish to rescind it the laity appear to have taken it to heart.
I am suprised that someone would be held in contempt of anything for threatening to disbar a club member for breaking the rules, would the rotary club or masonic lodge be held in contempt if it said something similar to a member?
A clearer description of the attack on AI is Vatican cardinal calls on Catholics to stop funding Amnesty:
(Incidently, why does this blog (site?) ban the word incest? I had a very hard time getting the above quote to pass the autocensor! Er, make that attempt to ban the word; obviously it's possible to trick it.)