Comments on: Crikey Says

By: Dave Liberts

Dave Liberts — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

That’s a bit selective JamesK, the issue of the Catholic Church’s response to some serious priest abuse allegations is very much current news, and Bishop Fisher’s comments are extremely newsworthy indeed. Bishop Fisher’s comments, clearly made on behalf of the church and not simply his own opinion, reveal a great deal about the reality of the church’s response to this issue. I note that the Pope’s spokesman was on the morning news hosing down expectations about the apology the Pope indicated he’d be making too. The Church simply doesn’t understand that by running away on this issue, it’s causing much bigger problems for itself - Bishop Fisher clearly belongs to the old school of issues management, not the newer ‘mea culpa’ approach encouraged by modern PR gurus.

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The story……is a very old ‘story’. That is to say that ‘it’ is , in act, not ‘news’ at all.

“Brilliant Editorial’ - my arse!

About the usual 10 - 20 line lowbrow and clearly effortless ‘editorial’, I have come to expect from Crikey.

By: Tom Wood

Tom Wood — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Brilliant Editorial.

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Dave, I could find no recording of what Bishop Fisher has said but found this from the Herald Sun:
Bishop Fisher told 2UE radio today he had not seen the broadcast due to WYD celebrations, and could only speak based on the newspaper reports he had seen this morning.

“Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying and delighting in the beauty and goodness of these young people,” said Bishop Fisher, “and the hope for us doing these sorts of things better in the future, as we saw last night, rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds.

“(Cardinal Pell) has led, in the church and this country, in trying to put in better and better processes to deal with these things so that we get it right.

“I am convinced that (Cardinal Pell) has done all he can and will continue to receive, as I hear today that was suggested on Lateline, some ways that we might improve processes for the future.

“We are happy to hear any constructive advice on how we can do this better in the future and in the meantime to do all we can to prevent this happening again and to bring healing and justice to the victims of these terrible cases.”
So tell me how exactly “Bishop Fisher’s comments, clearly made on behalf of the church and not simply his own opinion, reveal a great deal about the reality of the church’s response to this issue”.

I might also add that this was obviously an interview on the fly and Fisher who apparently admitted that he had not seen the Latelin programme which was what he was asked about. It’s more than a bit rich of you Dave Liberts to comment “clearly made on behalf of the church and not simply his own opinion”.