Perth Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has made a veiled apology to pro-life Catholic MPs in a letter sent to his priests, saying he acknowledges he may have undermined their independence with his controversial comments on stemcell research.In the letter, printed in this week’s edition of Catholic newspaper The Record, Archbishop Hickey said if his comments had made pro-life Catholic MPs feel compromised then he owed them an apology.
“Unfortunately, I may have placed pro-life Catholic MPs in a difficult position by my stance and undermined their independence,” he said in the letter.
“They may feel compromised and be accused of voting at the bidding of the Church. If this is so, I owe them an apology because I have always admired their courage.”
Archbishop Hickey came under fire last week after warning Catholic MPs they could be refused Holy Communion and faced excommunication if they supported contentious stemcell research legislation.
The comments led Legislative Assembly Speaker Fred Riebeling to warn it was a criminal offence to threaten an MP.
But in his letter to the priests, Archbishop Hickey claimed he had not threatened or implied excommunication: “Nor am I threatening to withhold communion from any Catholic MP who votes for the Bill.”
A State Parliament privileges committee decided this week that Archbishop Hickey’s threat to MPs could be regarded as contempt.
A NSW parliamentary committee will investigate whether Sydney Cardinal George Pell was in contempt of Parliament in warning MPs not to support a Bill that would open the way for therapeutic cloning.
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