Letters

"The Pell Show" (letter)

Stephen Hitchings

Contents - Oct 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Positive developments in liturgy - Michael Gilchrist Power without responsibility: the vendetta against Dr Pell - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Commission for Australian Catholic Women justifies its existence - Michael Gilchrist Liturgy: Vatican control over ICEL tightens - Dr William Oddie Bishop Power: Church teachings need to be 're-examined' - AD2000 REPORT US billionaire promotes orthodox teaching - Zenit News Service Catholic liturgy in the 21st century: major challenges facing the Church - Fr Peter Williams John Henry Newman's critique of liberalism - Michael Davies Letters: Archbishop Pell (letter) - Eamonn & Patricia Keane Letters: "The Pell Show" (letter) - Stephen Hitchings Letters: Justice? (letter) - Godwin Brown Letters: Shepherds (letter) - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Church "renovation" (letter) - B. Tooley Letters: Church re-design (letter) - Michael Barry Letters: Soul and body (letter) - Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini Letters: Zero tolerance (letter) - Alan A. Hoysted Letters: Letters to the Bishops (letter) - Mavis Power Letters: Catholic education (letter) - Dr Garrick Small Letters: US theologians (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Celibate priesthood (letter) - Cyril Drew Letters: Good response (letter) - C.G. Jarrells Letters: Novus Ordo (letter) - Maurice Collins Letters: New Zealand (letter) - Kevin E. Fennessy Poetry: The Great Deliverance - Marion Craig Books: The Courage to be Catholic, by George Weigel - Michael Novak (reviewer) Books: Completed Jew, by Andrew Sholl - Michael Casanova (reviewer) Books: Godfaring: On Reason, Faith and Sacred Being, by Francis Clark - Br Christian Moe FSC (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: Devotion to God through the Angelus and Rosary - Fr Fabian Duggan OSB

The campaign against Archbishop Pell has the quality of a well-scripted drama.

Act 1: A group of Catholics drop in for Mass, wearing their rainbow sashes. They go up for Holy Communion but are refused, so they storm outside, where the grounds appear to be conveniently swarming with journalists. The media respond with a storm of indignation.

Act 2: Just as the dust is settling from Act 1, the Archbishop is invited on a television show, where he is assaulted with a host of accusations and expected to recite word-for-word a telephone call he had almost ten years ago. Although the producers were blatantly dishonest when they invited him, he is the one accused of dishonesty, principally because he disagrees with his accusers.

Act 3: The journalistic parasites feast for weeks on this succulent offering. When they have extracted all the blood they can get, an anonymous person suddenly "remembers" that this man whose face has been plastered over the media for years is the same one who abused him 41 years ago. The Archbishop is obliged to step aside during an inquiry.

Perhaps Act 4 will be played out before this letter sees print.

It is all a bit like Peter Weir's movie The Truman Show, in which a man wakes up to find that his life has become a media spectacle.

I cannot predict how the drama will end. But what I would dearly love to know is: who is writing the script?

STEPHEN HITCHINGS
Sydney, NSW

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 9 (October 2002), p. 13