Anger at Abbott refugee speech

Two leading Australian Catholics have expressed dismay at former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s speech in London urging European leaders to stop the flow of refugees into the EU.

Jesuit Fr Frank Brennan, professor of law at Australian Catholic University, and retired Bishop Pat Power each questioned how Mr Abbott’s proposals in his Margaret Thatcher Lecture on 27 October could be reconciled with his Christian beliefs.

Mr Abbott, a Catholic and former seminarian, told his audience at the Guildhall that the imperative to “love your neighbour as you love yourself” was at the heart of every Western polity but no country or continent could open its borders to allcomers without fundamentally weakening itself. “This is the risk that the countries of Europe now run through misguided altruism,” he said.

“That’s why the countries of Europe, while absolutely obliged to support the countries neighbouring the Syrian conflict, are more than entitled to control their borders against those who are no longer fleeing a conflict but seeking a better life.

“It will … gnaw at our consciences – yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever.”

Fr Brennan told The Sydney Morning Herald on 29 October that Mr Abbott lacked the credentials to preach because he had not resolved alleged human rights breaches in immigration detention camps run on Australia’s behalf on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea. Bishop Power was “appalled” by the use of the Bible to advocate a “narrow-minded” and “hard-hearted” approach.