When Archbishop Mannix ruled in Melbourne, politicians trembled at his pre-election comments. Now the Catholic bishops issue statements at each election, but they receive little publicity.
The statements are not designed to outlaw one party or another, but to point out issues that are ethically significant.
This year most comment on the statement focused on the call for support for marriage and family. Its most distinctive feature, however, is that it frames its reflections around the economy.
In this the bishops echo Pope Francis' radical vision, locating the root of Australian ills in the deification of the economy and of economic growth. The remedy they offer is to focus on the people whom the economy ought to serve, and particularly on those who are excluded from its benefits.
The list includes asylum seekers, Indigenous Australians, victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence and abortion, those addicted to drugs and the poor of other nations. It also includes the human and natural ecology on which all human beings depend if they are to flourish. Much human exclusion can be traced to the lack of appreciation of and support for families in societies where the economy is made a god. In a throw-away culture of over-consumption, they too are thrown away.
In the bishops' analysis, the challenge facing us in the election is how to ensure that the economy serves the common good, and particularly those excluded from it. For this to happen the human ecology in which marriage and family are so central need to be protected, as does the physical environment. But it will happen only if the voices of the excluded are heard and their faces seen.
The statement does not break new ground — its themes are consistent with long-standing Catholic Social Teaching. But in Australia it is distinctive because it sets sexuality, marriage and life within a broader framework of social ethics. It links respect for life and family with respect for the environment and with respect for people who are excluded.
The lack of respect for these things has its source in a culture that subordinates the welfare of people to economic growth and the making of wealth.
"Implicit in the bishops' statement is the conviction that the ills of Australian society derive from and are intensified by a culture that privileges the pursuit of individual wealth."
This framework means that the central issue of the election is not seen as how to encourage economic growth but