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1. What is good about this article is that it reminded me that there are Queens other than Elizabeth of England in many countries in Europe.
   With the focus of media so closely on the UK and the USA, and now very slightly on Denmark due to Mary from Tasmania,(but not so much on the role of a monarchy there), there is very little brought to the front of our thoughts of leadership apart from the Prime Ministers of countries.

   Posted By: Lorraine

2. What is good about this article is that it reminds us that there are Queens, Catholic or otherwise, who either pay no death duties relating to their considerable wealth or, when required to, as in this instance, conspire to break the law. Its important for our higher sense of duty and ethics that we recognise this, so full marks to The Tablet and CathNews for publishing this story about her being caught out.
   It goes without saying that this story drives another nail into the coffin of an indolent monarchy and brings to the fore in our consciousness the primacy in leadership of the role of a democratically-elected Prime Minister, in this the fortieth anniversary of the election of our most reformist holder of that office, Gough Whitlam. Roll on the Australian Republic!
   
   

   Posted By: Michael Furtado

3. Australian children should know that the office of head-of-state of their own country is, at least technically, open to them.
   It is good if a head-of state has a commiment to Christianity (still the major form of belief in Austrlia) and even holds some form of office in that belief system if it is a personal choice but it should not be compulsory under law (the present situation). Pope Paul V1, who brought Vatican 11 to a conclusion said the declaration on religious freedom was the most important of all the council declarations.
   Re Gough Whitlam. The latest biography (published last year) revealed to most of us that more personalities (not acting on the advice of the P.M. according to the convention) were involved than we were made aware.
   Some comments on the book described the dismissal of the Whitlam Government as an assault on democracy. Regrettably, the discussion surrounding the book's revealations died down too quickly, perhaps because a lot of political analysts were quite young then or not born.

   Posted By: R.M.

4. Thank you, Ron, for some astute tangential comments. Some trivia: I met Fabiola, when she and Baudouin ('King of the Belgians') visited India in the Sixties.
   My aunt Edwina was married to a Belgian envoy and the Jesuit mission in Bengal was originally a Belgian one. She seemed cheerfully unfussy and attended Mass daily, as did Cheshire and Ryder, at our Calcutta parish.
   I endorse your suggestions about the pressing need for an enhanced Australian political literacy, given that the Church's teaching is that politics is a noble occupation and profession, requiring the engagement of us all for the advancement of the common good.
   I further commend your implied criticism of Whitlam's dismissal and the extent to which it has made the Labor Party, formerly the preserve of Catholics, into a shadow of its former self, more interested in spin than substance, robbed of politically literate and inspiring leadership and far too anxious to duck for cover in the face of conservative machinations.
   Sir Harry Gibbs's shadowy role in Whitlam's downfall was indeed known to several constitutional scholars, including Gordon Reid, a former Governor of WA, who taught me at one time, though my political teeth on this issue were cut by Professor Dean Jaensch of Adelaide, whose seminar discussions in the UK alerted those brought up on British constitutional history and democratic institutions to the enormity of the injustice perpetrated in Australia and which in the UK would have led to the judicial removal of the Head of State.

   Posted By: Michael Furtado

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