"Labor receives Pell's blessing" is the front-page headline in today's Australian newspaper.Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, has publicly endorsed the Labor Party's policy position on schools for the 2007 election.
This glowing endorsement must be a welcome relief for the Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd after the Catholic Church publicly slammed the Labor Party's policy on education funding at the 2004 election.
Cardinal Pell is an interesting - and sometimes controversial - archbishop, often noted for his conservative views.
He was a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention in Canberra and told the Convention:
"Some of my priests suggest to me sometimes that I am a conservative, and I must confess that I have some credentials."
So, he's a pretty honest sort of bloke after all!
And to the total amazement of his conservative colleagues at the Convention on the opposite side of the chamber, he then moved:
"That this Convention supports the adoption of a republican system of government on the bipartisan appointment model in preference to there being no change to the Constitution."
George Pell could prove to be one of Labor's greatest allies in the upcoming Federal election and Kevin Rudd's steady-as-she-goes approach is obviously proving to be a big vote winner - even with arch-conservatives like George Pell.
