Gambling Not A Sin?

Australia’s most senior catholic cleric has declared THOU shalt gamble, thou shalt smoke and thou shalt sell arms.

Speaking about moral values at a business lunch hosted by Notre Dame University, Cardinal George Pell recommended it might be to some extent be phony for the Catholic Church to denounce gambling absolute, given the current increase of poker machines in NSW Catholic clubs.

”To be honest I do feel rather ill at ease about it,” he admitted. ”Strictly speaking I’m an Irish Australian and we grew up gambling.” In itself gambling is not essentially wrong, he said.  Only when it becomes an obsession, in other words when it starts to impact on yourself and your family, it then constitutes a sin.

Warming to the forum’s theme ”God and Mammon: need or greed in the big end of town”, Cardinal Pell said taking into account the ethics of the sale of tobacco, providing grownups who are aware of the consequences and still choose to smoke is nothing to hasten to the confessional about.  When questioned about the ethics of arm exchange, he hypothesised that global military contractors might be acting on ethical importance.

”Arms could be produced morally…I think … in certain cases one might say it’s not needed.  Australia in itself is a peaceful country.  If we were without form military means this would be very enticing to our potential enemies.  The most convenient way for us is to stay armed, this will ensure that we remain vigilant and strong, I think you could make the case,” he said.

As an alternative, the cardinal’s anger focused on corporate fat cat salaries, which were ethically suspect, he said. His fellow panellist, David Thodey, barely blinked an eye. The question that was raised, centred on Telstra’s $10 million-a-year salary paid to chief executive Sol Trujillo, could mainly be the reason why Telstra’s $2.58 a share hit an all time low.

Can nice guys succeed in business? ”It’s not about being nice or not nice,” said Mr Thodey, with a passing reference to the latest round of Telstra redundancies. ”One has to rather focus on doing stuff in an ethical and selfless way … that is in the best interests of our shareholders – which of course include consumers and workforce.”