Strange how things happen accidentally. At Wayne’s this morning I drank hot chocolate, ate an egg sandwich and read the papers. And, for the second time in two days, I conversed with Damian, a fifty-six-year-old former actor and stonemason. And, as it turned out, trainee priest.
He had been, he said, at St Barnabus’s, the Manly seminary, for three years just after Tony Abbott left, and he himself left just before Tony came back. I asked if there was any homosexual rape of minors there, as attested by Michael Duffy, Abbott’s biographer, in his uncontradicted book, on page 68. ‘Only seduction, as far as I knew,’ he said. ‘Only seduction.’
‘How old were the youngest … seducees?’
‘Eighteen. Never under eighteen.’
Damian went on to tell of two ‘good mates’, trainee priests there, who went on bush camping trips together. It became a joke how ‘close’ they were. One is a priest still, in a big country city. The other is a florist in Balmain, living with a gay actor.
We talked about religion, about Tony Blair’s conversion to Catholicism whie he was Prime Minister, and Damian, still a Catholic, understood that. ‘It’s cultural,’ he said. ‘Like coming home.’
When I ventured that Tony Abbott had been covering up acts of homosexual seduction — and, maybe worse — these thirty years, he did not doubt it. ‘We all are, mate,’ he said. ‘We all are.’
And so it goes.
Name:
And so it goes?
No. It goes nowhere.
You have a problem with homosexual seduction?
Worse things, much worse.
not homosexual seduction as such, but homosexual seduction in the knowledge of the would-be leader of Australia. And not homosexual “seduction” at all, if you read sensitively what is written
Point well made, JS…
Christine, do you realise these people had taken vows of celibacy, and were training to become spiritual mentors to the public? That they would go on to frighten small children with tales of torture and condemnation for the same acts? And claim to represent God? Do you see nothing wrong with this?
And eighteen years old in those days was below the age of homosexual consent. Which made any such act — by priest on trainee priest, both parties sworn to celibacy — legally, rape.
Which Abbott is still covering up.
I can forgive my kid for being Gay
———-to each his own———— ———-but i couldn’t ———-
-forgive my kid for being Liberal—
If our kids are born with this or that, it’s all in their genes, nothing to forgive, plenty to accept…
In the UK, we had the Scottish cardinal speaking out against legalising gay marriage…then it turned out he had been participating in a bit of “seduction” with seminarians himself. I blame the Vatican, for reacting to the clerical child abuse crisis by blaming gay people in the priesthood. Aside from the fact that paedophilia isn’t related to any adult sexuality, i can’t help but think of pots and kettles.
I tend to agree, Christine. Young men will take the opportunity to try anything when virile, young and curious. Vows or no vows, it’s in the nature of things. How the church deals with it is another matter, but whether one of the young men may become our PM, well, that’s really a matter for him, his conscience, and the electorate.
Abbott was in his late twenties when he went rectal…
This is very curious behaviour from a man who already had trouble keeping his cock in his pants and apparently had a full time cock blocker following him around at various stages…
What is a çock blocker? Is it some kind of S bend or device that clamps on the penis prevents or restricts it from inappropriate movements while at Mass?
Hang on I’ll consult the Mongoose.
Vale Bill Peach.
Indeed Gerard
Vale BP.
Just when I thought they couldn’t get any uglier.
L’Ínconnu, did you really think that the Liberals had scraped the bottom of the ugliness barrel…oh no, there’s plenty more to come…
This was my response to the latest diatribe from serial Labor turncoat Gary Johns.. I suggest it is useful short primer for people who can be bothered rebutting the simple minded rubbish that you often get thrown at you by the those kindly referred to as the information poor… I prefer to call them the wilfully ignorant hard done bys
From the Oz Your comment has been published:
“So Labor has wasted $250b has it? Are you now trying to give Abbott an excuse to run away from his budget deficit promises. Same promise made many times that he would be back in the black in his first term. He was the one prattling on about budget deficits and pretending it was all so easy.
The budget is in deficit as a result of spending that was needed to keep us out of a GFC induced recession and a drop in revenues caused by a slower economy. The prompt action taken by the Labor Government to avoid recession has been applauded by every major international economics body and the right wing German Finance Minister among others. Such a recession would have led to negative growth, lower tax revenues and yes higher deficits.
The fact is that Government spending is lower than it was under Howard as a percentage of GDP. Inflation, interest rates and unemployment are also lower and we have a AAA credit rating from all three ratings agencies for the first time ever.
Cutting spending when revenues are down, and the international economic situation is still uncertain is fools gold. The budget is a tool to help the economy and is not an end in itself.
You should know better
To view your comment online go to:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/cleaning-up-labors-mess/story-fn8v83qk-1226704567737
Face in thr Mirror : (practising smiles, grins and expressions) WHO do you trust Who Do YOU Trust Who Do You Trust Who DO You Trust . . .
Mirror on the Wall : Well? Any luck?
Face : Luck with what?
Mirror : Cutting it down. The problem for your supporters is that there are four words.
Face : Too many, eh. I see.
Mirror : Keep it short for the five second grab that will follow every Labor policy pronouncement.
Face : Yeah, they waste a lot of words on policies. Our lot don’t need any fancy policies, just Stop The Boats Stop the Waste Stop the Bytes Stop the Butts Stop the Boats Pay the Rich Stop the Boats . . .
Mirror : “Pay the Rich”? When did you start that one?
Face : It’s Rupert’s idea, and Gina likes it too. I said I’d slip it in sublim . sublimin . sublim . . . secretly.
Mirror : Will it work?
Face : Why not - the media sucks up everything else I say, even the shit.
Mirror : (aside : shit happens)
Face : What was that?
Mirror : It happens, that Julie is getting into the act these days (aside : Three Stooges plus one).
Face : Yeah, can’t keep the women barefoot and pregnant anymore, much as we’d like to.
Mirror : Julie? Perish the thought! (aside : the offspring would curdle milk)
And so it goes.
did the horse bolt?
Pardon?
The clubbing thing. With Tony it’s all about clubbing, belonging to something, a religion, a political
party, training with the army boys, it’s also a messianic thing - with Martin Luther King it worked out, with Hitler it was a catastrophe. He who would be the messiah - this is Tony Abbott, lock, stock and barrel.
It’s always a gamble with a ‘messiah’.
Is it not?
Gay law reform in NSW occurred after 1981 - was Abbott in the semenary after that?
bLIAR may indeed have become RC whilst he was PM but he didn’t formally cross the Tiber until leaving office & Parliament.
I thought I had better not put this on the previous, Inmates-of-Charenton post.
BUT
A repeated word for the Ellis blog addicts. Don’t panic/don’t go overboard (take your pick). Watch the parties and what they are doing (It will be better for you than all this daily poll-watching).
Mark Textor on public polling right now:-
“Rather like taking temperature or pulse of a cancer patient. A rather shallow measure relative to complex biology”
And why party polling is better?
right now?
“Internal polls are more frequent (daily). More diagnostic (deeper). More advanced (multi mode). More focused (marginal seats)”.