Lange comment on cardinal

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 53

Lange comment on cardinal

PA Wellington The head of the Catholic Church in New Zealand, Cardinal Tom Williams, was right to speak out on social mat-, ters, said the Prime [Minister, Mr Lange. . However, in his comments last month on taxation, Cardinal Williams was “clearly wrong,” Mr Lange told Parliament. ■ "I think he is right to speak out on matters of social issues, and I would ) never have dreamed for a [ moment that he should do i anything other than that?' [ Mr Lange said, in reply to ' a question by Mr Maurice McTigiie (Nat., Timaru). "But he has the right when he speaks out to be [ right, and he has the right when he speaks out to be [ wrong.- i' “What he said about taxation was clearly .wrong: [ “It had all the intellectual grandeur of a ‘Tablet’ editorial.” At a Mass to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first Catholic Mass in New [ Zealand,'; Cardinal Williams called the Government’s policies “heartless and inhuman.” Mr | Lange said he respected Cardinal Williams. “But I suggest my respect for him would be enhanced if his analysis bore some relation to the. area he trespassed into.”