Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney has criticised the Australian Sex Party over its declaration of an "all-out war" on the Catholic Church during the Federal Election campaign, saying the libertarian party was targeting the faith of more than a quarter of the Australian population while exposing the lack of depth of single-issue political parties.
Sex Party president Fiona Patten, an upper house member of the Victorian Parliament, said in an email to supporters that hers was the only party prepared to stand up to the religions that stood in the way of changes to the law.
The Australian newspaper reported on 10 June that Patten had said in an email appealing for money for advertising for the 2 July election: "The Australian Sex Party are the only party with the guts to stand up for issues that matter to the majority of Australians — and up to the religions who stand in the way of changes to the law ... Not only will it talk about key issues like marriage equality, voluntary assisted dying and ending tax exemption for religious organisations, it will also declare an all-out war on the Catholic Church.”
The newspaper said that Patten also took a swipe at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, warning that regardless of whether Mr Turnbull's Liberal Party-led conservative coalition or Mr Shorten's Labor Party won the election, “we still end up with a Catholic Prime Minister”. “That’s why it’s so important that the Australian Sex Party have a strong voice in parliament at a federal level,” she wrote.
Archbishop Fisher retorted that “there’s nothing so Messianic as a single-issue party on crusade".
"Targeting politicians’, and more than a quarter of the Australian population’s, personal faith is something I’ll leave more respectful secular commentators to critique.”
Meanwhile, the Sex Party distributed photos purportedly showing two Sisters from Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity ripping down one of the party's election posters in Melbourne, saying the sisters appeared to be "hell-bent" on destroying the words "Tax the Church".
Ms Patten said the party's policy to tax the church was fair and reasonable, especially where it applied to the Church’s profit-making businesses.
“If the nuns would like to visit me and confess, that will be an end to it,” she said.
The party's lead candidate for a Victorian Senate seat and head of the Rationalist Society, Dr Meredith Doig, said: “Religious institutions need to understand that one of the reasons people are leaving the church in droves is that they are perceived as being increasingly insular and outside of mainstream society. Paying tax is a way for them to be more inclusive.” Dr Doig was reported by broadcaster SBS as saying: "I hasten to say I'm not anti-religious, but pro-secular."
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Mr Shane Healy, told Australian Associated Press that interfering with election posters could not be condoned but that no one "no one should be at all surprised that sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, established by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to feed and support the poorest of the poor, would be taking offence at the policies of the Sex Party”.
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