AUSTRALIA
WA Today
October 12, 2012
Barney Zwartz
Defence of the church, rather than victims, is the priority for clerics.
PETER Mahon, the extremely influential public relations expert who handles media strategy for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, once stood on the steps of St Patrick’s Cathedral and asked me if I really thought the church wanted to further damage victims of clergy sexual abuse after what they had already gone through.
It was an interesting tactic, designed (I think) to reshape the public conversation, but also misleading. Of course I don’t think Archbishop Denis Hart or the Vatican want to cause further pain and trauma – but, the pain and trauma having already occurred, they have several conflicting agendas in which the defence, even preservation, of the institutional church is top priority.
I don’t think the manufacturers of thalidomide actively wanted to deform babies in the womb either, but the history of recklessness followed by cover-up, damage control and attempts to evade its responsibilities to victims are instructive. Sadly, it’s a natural human reaction.
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