Bishop Bill Morris' (pictured) announcement that he had tendered his early retirement under Roman pressure aroused deep grief in Toowoomba. It will certainly arouse debate in and outside the Catholic Church. It is ironical that action taken to preserve unity in the church should so strain unity of hearts and minds.
In these first days of controversy, it may be helpful first to reflect on the impact that the action has on the people most affected by it.
When feelings run high the persons at the centre always suffer a loss of their individual identity. They become tin soldiers dressed in the livery that military strategists wish to assign them. They become rebels, heroes, authority figures, emperors, inquisitors, and are praised or blamed accordingly.
This is the nature of things. But from a Catholic perspective the process should always be accepted only under protest. At the heart of the Catholic view of the world is the central importance of persons. The approach to work, for example, begins with the assertion that work is for the development of the persons involved in it. They are not to be treated as costs or machines. For the same reason reflection on the economy is always begins with the human relationships involved, not with an abstract consideration of profitability. In the Catholic view, too, the treatment of asylum seekers and prisoners must respect their humanity. They are people with faces. They are not objects, not problems.
So it is right to begin reflection on the events in Toowoomba by focusing, not on the rights and wrongs involved and on the larger issues, but on the people and what these events mean for them. Reflection on the central issues will follow. At the centre, of course, is Bishop Morris. In his years of responsibility for the Toowoomba church he has earned a reputation as a deeply pastoral man with a care for the people of his church and an exceptional ability to listen and respond to them. His informal style and his honesty, which alienated a few in his church, endeared him to most. News of his retirement prompted tears.
In addressing the scandals of sexual abuse and their mishandling that have plagued the Australian Catholic Church, as elsewhere, he was also exemplary. He acted decisively in cases of complaint, and was among the first bishops to accept legal liability for abuse, so sparing the complainants the burden of legal