AUSTRALIA
The Age
February 23, 2016
Frank O’Shea
Isn’t it time someone spoke up for George Pell? I have never met him and have no ambition to do so. He seems to lack what you might call warmth; he comes across as remote, patrician, above the ordinary herd. But you could say the same about many academics or judges or public figures and it is hardly a reason to excuse the poor press that he gets.
In fact, the strident common tone of the media treatment of Pell should be a signal to people to wonder whether we are being manipulated. When all public commentary seems to agree on something, it is a duty of those who do not take their opinions from the media or from shock jocks to raise a small squeal of protest.
Modern Australia has long forgotten the widespread sectarianism of a former era, but perhaps there are buried shoots, ready to sprout at the least provocation. And the clerical abuse crisis is just the kind of stimulant to get these weeds growing again.
You may still hear comments from those times in surprising places – your local golf club, the butcher shop where you pick up doggy scraps, a restaurant meal – comments which pass over your head because you are among friends. Offence was not intended and in your case, not taken, but you may subsequently wonder where the remark came from, what caused someone you know well to make a statement more appropriate to the Mannix days of the 1920s.
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