ABC Suffers Relevance Deprivation
July 18th 2008 00:03
If you have a strong stomach you can watch a video of ABC's Q & A. It demonstrates that the arrival of the Pope has generated relevance deprivation on the part of the Australian Left's Cultural Elites. They can froth at the mouth and drop their pants at the Pope and the Cardinal all they like, but no one is listening or watching them, let alone the Catholic Youth they would like to convince to hate the Pope. The boys and girls are too busy having fun singing hymns, praying, drinking, waving banners, dancing and meeting young people like them from all over the world. For a few days Sydney is the centre of the world and they're young and at its very heart. I don't think the ABC/SMH axis of evil can compete with that and they're really pissed off about it. We knew this was going to happen. We knew there would be "revelations" of clerical impropriety and criminality, well -choreographed grieving parents, demands for apologies and huge financial payouts for victims. We knew they'd be targetting the Cardinal and Bishop Fisher. It is all so predictable. (Predictable too that they both provided ammunition for their enemies! Ignatius of Antioch praised the silence of the bishop as something more to be feared than his speech. He never had the opportunity to visit Sydney.)
When Compass used to on TV late on a Sunday morning back in the dark ages, my mother forbad me to watch it. I'd arrive at table for Sunday lunch in such a terrible mood that I wouldn't be much company, and she feared I'd throw something damaging at her TV. Last night's Q & A was clearly the worst panel discussion on religion I have ever seen - it was like a Theology 101 tutorial conducted in the deepest circle of Hell. The panel, God bless them, were smarmy, self-centred, incoherent, inarticulate, irrational and badly educated in the matters on which they offered unformed and ill-conceived opinion. Hearing Alexander Downer explain the respective areas of competence of a bishop and a politician was downright painful. He should have just said, "Look, if you want advice on shoes you don't go to Cardinal Pell (or Archbishop Jensen) you go to Imelda Marcos (or Monsignor Ganswein)!" Alexander is off to Cyprus. I hope he reads a little history beforehand - it could save him being flayed alive by the Turks. John Julian Norwich's chapter in his History of Venice would be a good start.
David Marr's little churchy witticisms and Tony Jones' chuckling at them made me gag. (Do you think Margaret Throsby is Tony Jones in drag? The nausea level is about the same.) Angela Shanahan, good woman that she is and good print journalist that she is, doesn't seem to be able to speak in public. I hope she was drunk - that at least would be an excuse for her ambitious embrace of the comprehensive non-sequitur. The contretemp between Marr and Shanahan has to be a new low in Australian intellectual debate. Is that all we have?
The less said about the inexpert spinning of the rising Young Labor star, whose name currently escapes me, the better. The bright light was Lindsay Tanner who could speak a complete sentence all at once - you know for certain he'd even be able to frame a whole paragraph if Tony Jones would let him. He even engaged in self-deprecating humour. Almost unheard of in the political and journalistic classes. I'd certainly cook lunch for Mr Tanner, pity we didn't hear more from him.
When Compass used to on TV late on a Sunday morning back in the dark ages, my mother forbad me to watch it. I'd arrive at table for Sunday lunch in such a terrible mood that I wouldn't be much company, and she feared I'd throw something damaging at her TV. Last night's Q & A was clearly the worst panel discussion on religion I have ever seen - it was like a Theology 101 tutorial conducted in the deepest circle of Hell. The panel, God bless them, were smarmy, self-centred, incoherent, inarticulate, irrational and badly educated in the matters on which they offered unformed and ill-conceived opinion. Hearing Alexander Downer explain the respective areas of competence of a bishop and a politician was downright painful. He should have just said, "Look, if you want advice on shoes you don't go to Cardinal Pell (or Archbishop Jensen) you go to Imelda Marcos (or Monsignor Ganswein)!" Alexander is off to Cyprus. I hope he reads a little history beforehand - it could save him being flayed alive by the Turks. John Julian Norwich's chapter in his History of Venice would be a good start.
David Marr's little churchy witticisms and Tony Jones' chuckling at them made me gag. (Do you think Margaret Throsby is Tony Jones in drag? The nausea level is about the same.) Angela Shanahan, good woman that she is and good print journalist that she is, doesn't seem to be able to speak in public. I hope she was drunk - that at least would be an excuse for her ambitious embrace of the comprehensive non-sequitur. The contretemp between Marr and Shanahan has to be a new low in Australian intellectual debate. Is that all we have?
The less said about the inexpert spinning of the rising Young Labor star, whose name currently escapes me, the better. The bright light was Lindsay Tanner who could speak a complete sentence all at once - you know for certain he'd even be able to frame a whole paragraph if Tony Jones would let him. He even engaged in self-deprecating humour. Almost unheard of in the political and journalistic classes. I'd certainly cook lunch for Mr Tanner, pity we didn't hear more from him.
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Comment by Anonymous
They're not exactly short of material, are they?
The Fosters' story is utterly horrific - including their treatment by Catholic Corporation Australia, Inc. G. Card. Pell and 'Boy George' Fisher ought to go into the Hall of Mirrors and have a good hard look at themselves.
I suspect Boy George's behaviour is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with the Church's treatment of victims: 'Yes, we love young people, bring them in, let's all have a good time - except if one of our priests has abused you, in which case we'll slam the door on you and leave you outside, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
I hope the kids so ecstatic about the church and the Pope have sufficient empathy to imagine what the church might mean for them, were they in the position of the legions of those who have suffered abuse at the hands of her priests. They might find their passion to be more restrained.
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Louise
If my Faith depended upon Christians being good people, I'd have lost it years ago.
That said, there can be no doubt that people have suffered terribly at the hands of some priests and I certainly feel sorry for them.
I notice, however, that no professional groups (eg doctors, teachers etc) have ever apologised publicly for the many instances of sexual abuse committed by their members over the years.
Double standard?