AUSTRALIA: CARDINAL PELL DISCOURAGES GAMBLING

CATH NEWS REPORT: Speaking at an ethics in business lunch yesterday, Cardinal George Pell said that gambling isn't intrinsically wrong - unless it becomes an addiction. He added that countries could produce arms morally, to defend thenselves, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Cardinal Pell said on the proliferation of poker machines in NSW Catholic clubs: ''I must confess I do feel a bit uneasy about that, but only a bit uneasy,'' he admitted. ''Because culturally I'm an Irish Australian and we grew up gambling.''
Only when it became an addiction, threatening the well-being of oneself and one's family, did it become a sin.
Speaking on ''God and Mammon: need or greed in the big end of town'', Cardinal Pell said at the lunch, hosted by Notre Dame University, that as far as the ethics of selling tobacco went, supplying adults who were aware of the risks and still chose to smoke was nothing to rush to the confessional about.
And when quizzed about the ethics of selling arms, he hypothesised that global military contractors may in fact be acting on a moral imperative.
''I think you can produce arms morally ... You might say in some cases it is necessary. We are a peaceful country. If we were unarmed that would be an enticement to evil people. The best way to stay as we are is to be strong and effectively armed so I think you could make the case,'' he said.
Instead, the cardinal's wrath honed in on corporate fat cat salaries, which were morally suspect, he said. http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24173

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