The Catholic Weekly 10 May 2020

18 10, May, 2020 C omment catholicweekly.com.au has approached. I have been astounded by the brilliance of colleagues in all schools, which has been demonstrated by their ingenuity, collabora- tion and sense of care to each other and their students. Teachers have adapted, innovated and transformed learning, so that students have meaningful learning ex- periences. Maintaining right relationships is always an im- portant ingredient in learning and teaching, even if learning is done differently. Effective by Week 3 of Term 2, schools will be welcoming back more students in a stag- gered process. Again, school leaders and teachers will Our teachers deserve rockstar status T he emergence of COVID-19 has rattled society’s cage by cre- ating looming uncer- tainty and the need to adapt to new routines and systems. Very few could have imag- ined that the tapestry of our normal life – work, faith, fam- ily, school, leisure, shopping, travel and so much more – has changed significantly. It is clear that the corona- virus has thrown significant but not insurmountable chal- lenges at our global village. Appropriately managing ma- jor societal concerns such as deaths, illness, economic coma, fear and anxiety is not an easy endeavour in our cur- rent climate. We are being challenged by a vast array of leaders to adapt to newmodels and routines in relation to many things we normally do in our lives. In essence, this nudges us to re- formulate our definition of work and our life priorities. In the school context, teachers and support staff have worked tirelessly to provide continuity in facil- itating quality learning and teaching as home learning shine in providing students and families practical and workable methods for learn- ing to occur on campus. Teaching is a vocation. You will always find teachers sup- porting students to be the best version of themselves. The COVID-19 pandem- ic has highlighted the tre- mendous passion and work of teachers during this most challenging time. As such, it is only fair that they deserve Rockstar status in the eyes of the community at large. Frank Chiment is the Prin- cipal Leader at Patrician Brothers’ College, Blacktown Barking up the wrong pulpit F rancis Sullivan recently expressed concerns in the US National Catho- lic Reporter that fallout from the Pell case would derail the Plenary Council. I supposemy first concern is that Francis believes the Plenary Council is important enough tomake changes to the Church in Australia. Really it has very little authority, and its report has to go to Rome for fi- nal ratification.The suggestion that it could be derailed by an unrelatedHigh Court decision seems over-dramatic. Muchmore interesting is that it’s currently rumoured that the Plenary Council is costing the Church in Australia millions of dollars. I’msurprised that Fran- cis hasn’t demanded instead that the Plenary Council’s full financials be published and askedwhy this largely cosmet- ic exercise is absorbingmoney that could be used to compen- sate clergy abuse survivors. My second concern is that Francis said he thought Car- dinal Pell’s acquittal on all charges was “opportunistic for forces who always want to use the imagery of religion as a bul- wark for their own personal ideologies.” It’s difficult to trace Francis’s conceptual leap froma unan- imous decisionmade by the High Court of Australia (not a very religious organisation) to a conspiracy against the rather smaller potatoes of the Plenary Council. I read a lot of weird Face- book pages, and I also read the comments.There are people Francis Sullivan attends a seminar on safeguarding children in Rome in 2017. PHOTO: CNS/PAUL HARING Teachers have adapted, innovated and transformed learning, so that students have meaningful learning experiences. Francis Sullivan’s passion is undoubted. His grasp of the real issues facing the church isn’t out there who believe George Pell is in cahoots with unseen, immeasurably wealthy forc- es who got himacquitted by underhandmeans - everyone fromRupert Murdoch to the lizard people. It’s surprising to find Francis on themargins of this eccentric fringe, especially as he added in his interview that “I wor- ry that the type of issues that the church needs to be able to demonstrate that they are relevant and they are contem- porary on, aren’t going to get [brought] up now.” The High Court overturned an unsafe convictionwhich set a precedent for abandon- ing the presumption of inno- cence and disregarding the ev- idence of multiple witnesses. It’s hard to see any relationship between this andwhether the Church is relevant and con- temporary, but clearly some relationship exists for Francis. Yet hemust surely be aware that a small percentage of cler- gy abuse cases involve un- provable and sometimes false allegations.The website bish- op-accountability.org tracks the rate of unproveable alle- gations at around 18 per cent, and false allegations at around 1.5 per cent. I believe Pell’s accuser was abused, and possibly even by a priest, but not by George Pell in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Ac- cepting this should strengthen our confidence in the legal sys- tem to handle historical sexual abuse claims without convict- ing innocent people. It’s a real shame that Fran- cismissed a golden oppor- tunity to address some very serious issues relating to the clergy abuse crisis in Austra- lia.The epicentre of Catholic clergy sexual abuse has been pinpointed by several indepen- dent large-scale studies. It consists of predato- ry ephebophilic homosexual clergy, often repeat offenders, whowere appointed and then protected by weak or person- ally compromised superi- ors in chanceries, seminaries, schools, and parishes. It’s been painfully easy to trace, over and over, preda- tor clerics who rose to senior positions and compromised others along the way, creating friendly networks andmaking themselves indispensable in the process. In 2016 George Pell testified under oath to the Royal Com- mission that when he became Archbishop of Melbourne, he was handed amess of clergy sexual abuse cases that had been largely ignored andmin- imised by archdiocesan agen- cies and his predecessor Sir Frank Little. He also testified that Bishop RonaldMulkearns and other senior clergy lied to himabout the Ridsdale case. This is even before we al- low for the obvious adminis- trative bungling and incom- petence in the case of John Ellis, a complainant against the Archdiocese of Sydney, whose casemade upmuch of Pell’s cross-examination at the Royal Commission in 2014. This is the kind of issue Francis should nowbe shout- ing about from the rooftops. Howmany other well-meaning bishops have been hamstrung by people in their own offices whowere personally compro- mised, or whowere covering up for their mates? So I’mdisappointedwith Francis’s response, but not sur- prised, because it’s been con- sistent withwhat I’ve seen of his agenda for Church reform. On 27 February this year, for example, Francis was keynote speaker at the Catholic Social Services national conference in Melbourne. He called for ‘power-shar- ing’ between clergy and laity, women in Church governance, and ‘democratising’ Church administration so that local communities could oversee ministries for local needs. Putting women in Church governance will not stop abus- es. Francis should talk to the increasing numbers of people who are reporting historical spiritual and sexual abuse at the hands of religious sisters. Creating a lay-led Church will not stop abuses. Sullivan should also talk to the increas- ing numbers of lay people who have been victimised and bul- lied - by other lay people - out of diocesan and Church agen- cy employment in Australia. I believe Francis is well-in- tentioned. But I think he’s taking advice from the wrong people – and some of them, I suspect, have enabled abusers in the past. They’re using a classic ‘look over there’ tactic that has dis- tracted himcompletely from the real epicentre of clergy sexual abuse - which he never mentions. These largely elderly people are still hoping that the tired and enfeebled Church of their imagination – amorphous spir- ituality, women priests, and to- tal sexual autonomy - will sud- denly blossom into being. They aren’t coping well with the realities of their choic- es: self-induced demographic winter, dying parishes, and the exodus of the few remaining practising Catholics under 40 to traditions that the Boomers discarded. It’s a shame that someone like Francis has chosen to use his position to cast doubt on an important legal decision that has implications for all Austra- lians, not just for the Church andGeorge Pell. I knowhe’s trying to help, but this isn’t helping. Dr PhilippaMartyr is a Perth- based historian, lecturer and researcher. She can be con- tacted at: Philippa.martyr@ gmail.com Frank Chiment Philippa Martyr It’s a shame that someone like Francis has chosen to use his position to cast doubt on an important legal decision for all Australians, not just for the Church and George Pell ... he’s trying to help, but this isn’t helping.”