The Record Newspaper 01 March 1990

Page 1

Money probe findings • Page 2 PERTH, WA: March 1, 1990

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• Page D

One-day fast protest K UALA LUMPUR: Catholic churches have urged their parishioners to observe a day-long fast to protest against what bishops said were government attempts to apply Islamic law to nonMuslims.

The fast is part of a campaign by non-Muslim groups against a controversial Selangor state law, passed in July last year, which denies parents the right to stop minors from becoming Muslims once they attain

the age of maturity under Islamic law. Under syariah or Islamic law, girls are deemed to have reached the age of maturity once they menstruate. The age of maturity for boys is 15. • See page 5

WIRE service for women

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Underclass expose BISHOPS: ABSOLUTE POVERTY DOES EXIST IN AUSTRALIA

Absolute poverty, or destitution, does exist in Australian society, the Catholic Bishops' Wealth Inquiry has found. Australia also has an "underclass", say the bishops. It is the hidden poor, some of whom are not visible enough to find their way into surveys and statistics. A preliminary statement issued today by the Bishops' Committee for justice, Development and Peace on some of the report findings says about Australian families: "The high incidence of marriage breakdown is having a most damaging effect on tens of thousands of children. "This sometimes is aggravated by domestic violence and child abuse.

At the annual Teachers Mass in St Mary's Cathedral on Sunday night Father Gerard Holahan, director of religious education, proclaimed the gospel which had been carried processionally in by Francis Douglas newly appointed arts co-ordinator for Bayswater and the central region and who *as supported with streamer bearers from St Paul's Mount Lawley, St Peter's Bedford, St Columba's Bayswater and Trinity Perth schools. • Share children's cares, says archbishop on Page 3.

"At the same time, it is claimed that taxation laws discriminate against parents and that the economy is evolving in such a way that both parents are often forced to take jobs outside the home — to the detriment of their children's welfare." The bishops, in a four-page statement, say that the full draft report on the two-year consultation with hundreds of groups and individuals will be published before mid-year. The preliminary statement says it is commonly accepted that steps should be taken to raise the living standards of all Australians — that the nation's economy must be strengthened and increased production is necessary. But questions about such assumptions will be asked in the draft document.

While the poor have the right to aspire to an improved living standard, the bishops ask if the same can be said of the rich and even the moderately well-to-do. Special areas of poverty are identified — including Aborigines, refugees, sole-parent families, homeless and unemployed youth. The bishops say the report will raise pointed questions about wealth and its acquisition, the easing of the tax burden on high income earners, tax avoidance, the profits of drug-trafficking and other criminal activities — and the payment of extremely high salaries to some executives and professionals when wage restraint is the order of the day for many bread winners.

Pope on debt challenge VATICAN CITY (CNS): Easing foreign debt requires international assistance that not only addresses the economic problems of a country, but also "the human and social cost" of living under such a debt, Pope John Paul II told Bolivia's new ambassador to the Vatican. "The problem of the external debt represents a worrying challenge for the economy and the standard of living for a broad cross-section of the country's population," the pope said. In addition, he said, "the human and social cost indebtedness brings means that the situation cannot be put in exclusively financial or monetary terms". "New forms of international solidarity" are needed to help debtor nations find ways to deal with the debt, which frustrates "the legitimate aspirations of so many Bolivians". "It cannot be forgotten that many of the socio-economic and political problems of the people have their roots, and great repercussions. in the moral order," the pope said.


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