Cardinal Pell praises Queen as she celebrates Diamond Jubilee

BY DAVID V BARRETT
IN AN AGE of increasing but still minority secularism the Queen prompts us to remember our Judaeo-Christian roots, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, said on Sunday. In an address marked the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in St James’s church, Sydney, the cardinal said the Queen has “played her part well”.
“This year we celebrate her 60 years ofachievement, ably supported by Prince Philip. She embodies many of the values we aspire to share. She knows the duties she has inherited, the tasks she must perform as a constitutional monarch, in our case through the Governor General, and I repeat she has done well,” Cardinal Pell said.
“Therefore as one of the guarantors of our governing authority, and its proper exercise and as a democratic symbol whois subjecttoGod’s authority, we give Queen Elizabeth the honour and respect which is her due.” Australia’s Judeo-Christian roots, the cardinal said, “define Australian ‘common sense’, the insistence of ‘a fair go for everyone’ and our sympathy for the underdog”. He said the Queen was also a reminder that nearly two thirds of Australians are Christian. “In Australia we practise a substantial separation of Church andstate and acknowledging the majority identification as Christian implies no threat to the irreligious or indeedanti-religious,who have the same freedoms as we do to influence public opinion.” Cardinal Pell recalled some of the “immense changes” of the Queen’s reign and said: “As she continues her years of service we pray that God will not fail or forsake her, that she will remain strong and courageous andthat she will always act ‘in accordance with all that is written’ in the sacred Books.”
Mary Kenny: Page 12