Weekend Wrap for 12 February 2023

Sonia Hickey: What is the Role of the New South Wales Education Standards Authority?
"Controversial New South Wales Opus Dei schools are now under investigation by the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA) after recent media coverage which raised concerns about the school curriculum. A story, which recently aired on ABC’s 4 Corners, told the stories of alumni from both Redfield College (for boys) and Tangara School for Girls, both of which are run by the small but powerful Catholic organisation, known as Opus Dei. Allegations levelled at Tangarra school include that pages of the NSW curriculum were ripped out of textbooks, homophobia is rife, and expressing sexuality in any way, shape or form is strongly discouraged. Some of the former students say that their time at the school left them with psychological damage. The school is now under investigation by the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (or NESA)." (3 Feb 2023)
Read more at Sydney Criminal Lawyers

Des Cahill: Cardinal George Pell’s sendoff.
"The Australian Catholic Church now has the task of constructing a church with totally revamped and contemporary sacramental liturgies, one that incorporates Indigenous and Asian spiritualities. It is a monumental task, beyond the capabilities and imaginations of Big George’s many acolyte archbishops and bishops in charge across the Australian continent. The victims of clerical sexual abuse and their families will continue to tie their protest ribbons to the gates of St Mary’s. The church will continue to remove them. The hurt will continue, just as the adulation and whitewashing of George Pell’s life will continue." (4 Feb 2023)
Read more at The Saturday Paper

Mark Buckley: Was Pell a decent man? No.
"George Pell's funeral in Sydney has shown clearly the divisions within the Australian community at large, the Catholic Church itself, and the conservative side of politics. It all boils down to whether or not Pell was a decent human being. Aside from the well-known path from obscurity to eminence, there is the ongoing debate as to whether he was an innocent victim of 'the mob', pursued unfairly to his death, or was he, as Tony Abbott recently stated, 'a saint for our times'?" (6 Feb 2023)
Read more at the AIMN

Andrew Collins: George Pell's passing cannot cleanse the Catholic Church.
"I don’t see anyone as either good or bad. I see it as a sliding scale that changes. There is always good in a person and always some bad. I admired Pell for his intellect, wit and tenacity. I didn’t always agree with him, but I admired his passion and willingness to stick to what he believed. I didn’t like the decisions he made when it came to child sexual abuse. The Royal Commission was a search for the truth and I accept its findings. It found that Pell knew about abuses, yet did nothing — all to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church." (7 Feb 2023)
Read more at Independent Australia

Ashleigh Raper: 'I was wrong': NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says Catholic faith did play a role in gambling reform.
"Dominic Perrottet has been doing some soul-searching. Over the past few days, the premier has been reflecting on how his Catholic faith influences his policy decisions during a bruising debate on gambling reforms. He now says he was wrong to say that it does not have an impact on how he forms his views." (7 Feb 2023)
Read more at ABC News

ABC's Soul Search: Queer faith and theology at World Pride.
"It has to be said a lot of our public conversation about religion and sexuality assumes that faith and queerness are separate – even antagonistic aspects of human life. But where does that leave queer people of faith? Queer theology has been an active field of study for decades, but may not be well known outside divinity schools, and is only just now being taught formally in Australia." (9 Feb 2023)
Listen to the full episode at ABC Radio National

Sonia Hickey: Peter Hollingworth to Face Secret Hearing for Allegedly Enabling Child Sexual Abuse.
"Former Governor General Peter Hollingworth is facing an internal tribunal hearing held behind closed doors within the Anglican Church – to determine whether he should be defrocked over his alleged role in covering up child sexual abuse within the church. Many complaints have been levelled at Hollingworth over his handling of child sexual abuse within the institution while he was the Archbishop of Brisbane – a role he held for more than a decade prior to becoming Governor General of Australia in 2001. The controversy surrounding the decisions he made about child sexual abuse reports while Archbishop and commentary around these decisions which plagued his reign as Governor General. leading to his resignation in 2003." (10 Feb 2023)
Read more at Sydney Criminal Lawyers

Mike Seccombe: The painful legacy of Peter Hollingworth.
"Hollingworth's legacy is still being determined. Over four days this week, the church's professional standards body considered the case to have him defrocked. We know little about it, because it was held in secret. Among the matters before it – the only one we know anything about – was [Beth] Heinrich’s case. 'It's probably the longest-running case of child abuse in the world, and possibly one of the most expensive,' says Professor Chris Goddard, a University of South Australia academic. 'And she’s still not got resolution.'" (11 Feb 2023)
Read more at The Saturday Paper

Caitlin Mahar: Pious, prolonged or painless: the remarkable reconception of what it means to die well.
"At the heart of the story of euthanasia is a remarkable reconception of what it means to die well in the west. Today, regardless of which side of the euthanasia debate we line up on, for most of us what we might call a good death is likely to involve dying swiftly and painlessly. But this is a relatively recent conception of what it means to die well. Until at least the middle of the 19th century, most Australians would have considered a swift or sudden death a bad death because it allowed no time for spiritual preparation and repentance." (11 Feb 2023)
Read more at The Guardian