Australia prelates criticise ‘relentless’ media campaign against Church

AUSTRALIA
The Tablet

February 20, 2018

By Mark Brolly

[See the two opinion pieces discussed in this article: Where will relentless campaign leave the most needy? by Archbishop Anthony Fisher, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 12, 2018; and A message from Bishop Vincent Long about recent media reports, Catholic Outlook, February 15, 2018.]

The archbishop said some would like the Catholic Church to be ‘knocked out of the equation’

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney and Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen of Parramatta have both criticised as a “relentless” campaign a series of newspaper articles last week by Fairfax, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, about the Catholic Church, its purported wealth and its response to victims of child sexual abuse by Church personnel.

Archbishop Fisher, in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on 12 February, wrote that given its many works, it was inevitable that the Church would have lots of “assets”, but the works were done as a non-profit organisation. “To compare this with the corporates like Westfield and Wesfarmers, as the SMH and Age did yesterday, is unreal,” he wrote. “So is valuing St Mary’s Cathedral as if it were a potential site for a high rise development. Its value is as spiritual and artistic heritage of the Church, city and nation.

“Comparisons with the big corporates fail for another key reason: companies make money for their shareholders, the Church spends its resources on others.

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