AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street
Frank Brennan | 03 June 2015
Witch-hunts are not just a feature of the past. Justifiably, people are upset about the Catholic Church’s failures to deal with child sexual abuse.
On Monday, I was doing my best to answer questions upfront about all manner of things from Indigenous constitutional recognition to child abuse when ABC presenter Ian Henschke from Adelaide questioned my right to deliver the homily at the funeral mass for the ex-Keating Minister Bob Collins in Darwin Cathedral eight years ago. He said ‘a lot of people wonder at why you did that’.
He wanted to know if I had spoken to any of Collins’ victims. When Collins died, nothing was proved against him. No one then or since has ever approached me saying they were a victim of abuse by Collins. Henschke’s producer later defended the question as ‘appropriate within the context of the interview and the climate we find ourselves in’. The climate is one of witch-hunt.
I told Henschke’s listeners that Collins, like anyone, was entitled to Christian burial.
In my homily, I had said, ‘God alone is our judge, and God alone is Bob’s judge. This is not a day for judging Bob, his political opponents or his accusers. There have been plenty of splinters and logs in evidence these past days. Putting aside the splinters and logs, we come to the table of the Lord, all of us sinners and all of us praying, “Lord I am not worthy to receive you. Say but the word and I shall be healed.” We pray healing for all who have spoken for and against Bob these days.’
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.