Pell apologises for Q & A comments
Cardinal George Pell has apologised following comments he made on Q & A in which he demeaned Jews.
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Sydney Catholic Archbishop Cardinal George Pell has apologised following comments he made on Q & A in which he demeaned Jews.
When asked why God would “randomly” provide proof of his existence to a group of Jews 2000 years ago, Pell replied:
“For some extraordinary reason God chose the Jews. They weren’t intellectually the equal of either the Egyptians or-”
“Intellectually?” host Tony Jones interceded. “How can you know, intellectually?”
“Because you see the fruits of their civilisation. Egypt was the great power for thousands of years before Christianity. Persia was a great power. Caldia. The little Jewish people were originally shepherds. They were stuck, they’re still stuck.”
After the Executive Council of Australian Jewry conveyed its ”serious concern”, Cardinal Pell released a statement saying he was sorry the points did not come out as he preferred.
He said he was trying to ”make a point about the unique place of the Jewish people in human history as the first to receive the revelation of the one true God while I was being regularly interrupted and distracted by the chairman” (Jones).
In his statement Cardinal Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, said that ”historically” or ”culturally” unequal might have been a better term than ”intellectually”.
The Australian Jewish News yesterday headlined its front page ”Clerical error”, with a large picture of the cardinal.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim said the ECAJ had been in ongoing discussions with Cardinal Pell’s office since expressing serious concern about “some of the statements he made on Q & A, which are deeply problematical from a Jewish perspective.”
Source: The Age
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5 Responses
I understand the point that the Cardinal was making, that God chose to reveal himself to a people who had not reached anywhere near the level of advancement of their neighbours, such as the mighty Egyptian empire and the Babylonians, that the Creator chose to reveal himself to a people living a relatively simple life. It was not really insulting to the Jewish people when it is put in the context it was meant, but I agree that he expressed the point clumsily. Valid point, just poorly expressed. Pell is a polarising figure, but I thought he performed reasonably well. I was disappointed with Dawkins, I was expecting a much better performance from him.
Ahhhh…Jews, Catholics, Moslems…what a wonderful world it would be if there were no religions. No killings in the name of “religion”. The only thing that makes any sense is “Ancient Aliens” and “Chariots of the Gods?”, and of course the Bible, which backs up the belief that Jesus was the result of an inter-species breeding experiment by aliens. (“Aliens” means “from another world”, and by definition, God is therefore an “alien”). Would like to see a Q&A on that.
A pretty lame apology.
I assume that is a no on apologising to the gays. He did after all liken them to gods carpeting flaw, then when asked to clarify gave a very unnasuring ‘ehh ahh not necessarily’. He also implied that gay people are inferior as parents.
If someone said these things about the catholic church I’m sure Pell would be the first to demand an apology.
Pell – pulls back the church another 400 years and improving relations between faiths – not. With a man like this representing his “flock” no wonder so many catholics are not only dissolutioned but also have walked away from their faith.
Pell sort of apologised; like a 10 year old, by blaming someone else (Tony Jones). His statements were deliberate and would not have been out of place within a group of old catholics. Tony Jones did interrupt a couple of times a) because what Pell was saying was so outrageous & b) in an attempt to give him the chance to undig the hole he was digging by clarifying what he was saying. Unfortunately the later tactic just made things worse. The point Pell was patronisingly making was always going to be insulting and offensive. His comments yesterday in his “apology” are still insulting. And another point: No one to my knowledge has taken him aside to ask him about his herectical statements about all of us getting a bodily ressurection (which is in conflict with catholic doctrine) yet either. Does the Pope know about Pell’s new revelation? The Cardinal is the one that’s coming across as intellectually not up to it!