Update (July 31) : YouTube, presumably bowing to pressure from the Church, has removed the offending video. The Good News (so to speak) is that it’s still available via Live Leak; you can even download the video if you want…
Oh dear.
Provocative teenage boys have once again got under the skin of a Catholic priest. In this case, by calling one — of all things — a paedophile. While the priest in question claims not to be able to watch the video in question, according to the Very Reverend Geoffrey Baron (Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne), “The only thing I did see was me being surrounded by these kids and I looked like a kind of a hunted animal being yapped at by jackals and hyenas“. The boys, in other words, were highly intelligent, carnivorous pack-animals; whereas Geoffrey was… graceful.
Y’know… like an antelope?
Predictably, Catholic News provides the most sympathetic account, one titled ‘Priest succumbs to skateboarder taunts’. This follows on from the Vicar General of the Melbourne archdiocese, Monsignor Les Tomlinson, initially claiming that Baron had been provoked: “Could you imagine yourself being subjected to the abuse and the pushing that he was subjected to and be confident that you yourself would not react in a way that perhaps you wouldn’t if you weren’t provoked? And if any human being is under siege like that, they may well react in a way they wouldn’t do in another circumstance.”
Aside from the fact that the video reveals Baron to have been pushed — once — but only after having struck one of the skaters, Tomlinson apparently believes that asking a teenage boy why he’s been stained by the semen his friends have covered him in after they’ve “fucked” him, then asking another how sore his “arsehole” is after these same friends — “cunts” — have “fucked” him falls within the realms of the range of ‘natural’ reactions someone might display who discovers a group of teenagers skating on his or her property.
Um… really?
Of course, such utterances did not come from the mouth of, say, a politician, but a Catholic priest. As to why that might be considered more serious, here’s what the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane has to say about these men with a mission:
Priests are called to be forthright messengers of hope, strong community leaders and spiritual guides for both the lost and the faithful.
Messengers of Hope:
Jesus Christ has had an incredible impact on the world. His teachings have shaped many values held by our society, and his love has transformed countless lives. A critical part of a priest’s mission is to tell Christ’s story of hope. That story brings comfort to those who are weak and without a voice, and encourages and activates those who have the power to make the world a better place. Jesus’ message of hope is not always popular; people have suffered for preaching the Gospel, but it is a powerful message that must be told.
Community Leaders:
One of the most satisfying things about being a priest is being part of a faith community and being a pastoral leader. This occurs on a number of levels, including presiding over communal worship of a faith community and joining with families at big moments like weddings and baptisms. Priests are often called upon to enter the lives of people when life is darkened with sadness and difficulty. Even in these difficult moments, a priest can experience a profound satisfaction that he has been an instrument of God.
Spiritual Guides:
The priest of the future will need to continue to assist people in developing their spirituality. Nourishing the Catholic community with the Body and Blood of Christ is a vital role for a priest. He also needs to explore ways of helping people make spiritual sense of their lives in a dynamic and changing world. Before speaking into other people’s lives, priests need to be students of prayer themselves. A priest develops his personal relationship with God, to learn the ways of God and to lead others on those paths.
In Baron’s defence, however, Monsignor Tomlinson claims that “groups of skateboarders gathering around the Church have been a long-standing problem”. Baron himself further claims that “I have the impression that that particular gang of skateboarders, they take a particular delight and joy in reducing people to grovelling measures as I was, that’s their goal, that’s their aim, so I don’t think I owe them an apology as such…”
So, not just skateboarders, but evil, malicious skateboarders — jackals even; hyenas! And the “abuse” Baron directed at them was not “abuse”. No, by telling the boys to go away (hitting one across the head) and to fuck off; calling them fucking cunts, fucking fools, foreigners who don’t belong and four eyes… this, apparently, was — by Geoffrey’s rather odd definition — ‘grovelling’. But in any case, even if we assume that Tomlinson is correct, and that the presence of skateboarders on Church property was indeed “a long-standing problem”, this would suggest that Church authorities have in fact had some time to develop a solution, one which doesn’t consist of a tirade of abuse from the Dean.
As for media reportage of the Very Reverend’s irreverent outburst, it’s worth remembering that in October 2006, it was revealed that Sydney-based Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Din al-Hilaly gave a highly-controversial sermon, in which, among other things, he made an infamous comparison between (what he considered to be) inappropriately-dressed women and uncovered meat. Not surprisingly, his comments sparked outraged denunciations from both Muslims and non-Muslims; soon-to-be-ex Prime Minister John HoWARd described the remarks as “appalling and reprehensible”; the Islamic Council of Victoria called for his resignation.
And Geoffrey?
According to the ABC, the Very Reverend Geoffrey defended his actions on radio today, stating that “If I could take it back I would, if I could walk around the city in sackcloth and ashes I would, but that’s not going to happen… I can only express from the depth of my heart [that] it’s out character with me. But because of the situation I was in and the nature of the territory that’s there, it’s a sacred space, I just found it appalling that they had so little regard there and that reduced me to the level of all that rubbish that I said. I was shocked too when I saw the whole thing and I was shocked when it happened. When I was pushed to the limit something snapped inside me and I was out to say as much as possible to hurt and humiliate these, as you call them, thugs.”
- thug (thŭg) pronunciation
n.
1. A cutthroat or ruffian; a hoodlum.
2. One of a band of professional assassins formerly active in northern India who worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her.
[Hindi ṭhag, perhaps from Sanskrit sthagaḥ, a cheat, from sthagati, sthagayati, he conceals.]
What a wanker.
Potty-mouthed priest ashamed of outburst
Kellee Nolan
Herald Sun [AAP]
July 30, 2007A SENIOR Catholic priest says he feels indescribable shame over the verbal abuse he hurled at a group of teenagers taunting him on his cathedral steps in Melbourne.
Reverend Monsignor Geoff Baron, the Dean of Melbourne’s iconic bluestone church, St Patrick’s Cathedral, was caught on video swearing at and racially abusing a group of teenage skateboarders.
The incident happened a year ago and video footage recently surfaced on the YouTube website.
Monsignor Baron said he wished he could take back his “outrageous behaviour”.
“The shame that I feel and the embarrassment, I can’t really describe,” he said on Southern Cross radio.
“It was outrageous behaviour, I let myself down terribly badly, that’s quite clear and I’ve also brought scandal and shock to other people.”
He said he had been provoked when the teenagers, who were skating on the cathedral steps, called him a pedophile.
“I can’t excuse it, I wouldn’t even try to, I don’t know why I said those things. It might be linked up in some way that so many priests are considered to be pedophiles and here I was being called one.”
He said he could not bear to watch the footage.
“The only thing I did see was me being surrounded by these kids and I looked like a kind of a hunted animal being yapped at by jackals and hyenas,” he said.
“All they were doing was provoking me and making it worse and worse. I have never in my whole life got as angry as that, never.”
He said he would now have to live with the footage of his outburst being beamed around the world “all the days of my life”.
The language came from the depths of his heart, when something “snapped inside”, he said.
He said the outburst was out of character and he was “utterly embarrassed”, apologising to all who were offended, but not to the teenagers he abused.
“I have the impression that that particular gang of skateboarders, they take a particular delight and joy in reducing people to grovelling measures as I was, that’s their goal, that’s their aim, so I don’t think I owe them an apology as such, I apologise to all who were scandalised by my behaviour.”
Monsignor Baron may now seek help in dealing with anger issues and will have to discuss the incident with Archbishop Denis Hart.
has it all been wiped from youtube? the link you have on another post is to a broken video. where can i see this?
that guy must make an awesome sermon!
Yeah, they’ve pulled it.
It’s still available on LiveLeak, though for how much longer is an interesting question…
See it while you still can!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=228_1185655801
As for his sermons, fuck off! Listen to me you fucking cunts. Or get back to where you come from you… sfool! You don’t belong in Australia. You don’t belong here. Move! You fucking fool. Get out of the Church you fucking fool. Arsehole. Fool! Fool! Fucking cunt. Get out of the Church! Get out of the Church! Get out of the Church!
Let us pray.
Priest’s actions likened to “Jesus cleansing the temple”.
What a bunch of little shits.
hahaha… unbelievable… a catholic priest ranting on with sexually and racially abusive comments to young boys on film!
funny that the first thing he thinks about is how the boy is covered in the sperm of all the other boys who fucked him… then he goes on to ask another boy if his arse is sore from being fucked!
a priest saying this to boys as young as 12???
and then the racial stuff? we all know deep down this is how he feels about foreigners coming into australia… how unbelievably 2 faced is that coming from a church!
I would\’ve gone back and skateboarded through the fucking church itself just to hear what else he had to say!
Anyone viewing the video and listening to the Good Father\’s words, has seen the true face of the Catholic Church. Please spare us the \”bad apple\” or \”stressed out\” routines.
We are watching the ugly face of POWER itself when affronted by children, not out to deface or vandalize, but only seeking healthy recreation.
Nobody can control [themselves] in front of such little devils. They may be out there to provoke him. Somebody has even prepared to shoot a full video. All this is a plan to insult him and the Church. A priest is only a human being. If I am called a pedophile, I can even kill all of them. His feelings of being surrounded by a pack of jackals and hyenas is true. These boys may have had their own terrorist intention. We should find out who they are.
I believe the priest was using the right language and expressions to counter the pack of wolves/little devils that were attacking him.
If you read Oriental Zen, you will see that [a] Zen master can use any actions, language or expressions to convey his message.
These young boys may just be real terrorists. I wonder where they come from.
Were they from the Middle East? South Asia? Pakistan or Malaysia?
These countries have become hotbeds of young terrorists being trained to attack Christian institutions and people.
Australia has had such incidents in the last several years.
The police should find out who they are. They have even prepared a full video.
The provocation looked well-planned. If they had done the same to me, I would not only [have] used the same Zen language, but also a gun.
All of them may very well be shot down like little devils.
It IS still up (or has been put up again) on YouTube. Just search “priest kickout”.
The violent language (as well as minor physical violence) only began after the priest let loose with his unnervingly obscene tirade.
The kids were already going, but his provocative language turned the scene into something really horrible.
The fact that they didn’t beat him up shows clearly that the kids had a far more powerful sense of restraint than the ranting cleric.
Here is a link to the video:
Enjoy!!!!
Comments from Eagle Kiss:
These young boys may just be real terrorists. I wonder where they come from.
Were they from the Middle East? South Asia? Pakistan or Malaysia?
Wow. Eagle Kiss seems like a churchgoer and a real supporter of potty mouth priest. Notice how this bigot named the countries based on religious affiliation while the video explicitly shows they were average white kids who were simply being juvenile. BTW, I\’d [ask?] Eagle Kiss to step out of the little cocoon and try and find South-Asian skateboarder kids. Every so often, such racists find it convenient to cast the blame on those that belong to other ethnicities.
Petronimus: Then why did the priest shout “Seedy eyes, black hair” and “foreign” and “come back to where you are from.”
Do you know what have such kids been doing?
EK,
If you watch the video — and it appears to be all over the Interweb now — you’ll discover that the overwhelming majority of the perhaps dozen or less skaters the priest delivers his sermon to are white. As far as I can tell, there is only one skater who appears to be of Asian descent.
@ndy: If those kids are white, then why did the priest seem to shout to foreign kids that are not white?
Here I do not mean any racism. I just wanted to know where those kids come from. One of them even looked like he wanted to hit the priest.
Even if they come from non-white or Muslim countries, they have all the rights to be there.
If they are little Muslim terrorists, then they must be paid attention to.
As for the priest, I am not supporting his language and attitude.
I guess perhaps he had been facing the problem for quite too long to control himself.
It seemed he was occupied by Satan when he uttered such filthy words.
But if the kids were occupied by devils, such devils may have occupied him, too.
The priest may have entered the seminary after his adolescent years as his language seemed to come from a street background, rather than a seminary background. Where did he learn such expressions as \”sperm,\’\’ \”sore ass\” and \”fucking sore ass\” all homosexual technical terms??? Why did the young boys call him \”pedophile\”? Such things must be found out. If he was really bad, he must be ousted from the Church. But if he was being framed by those who hate him and the Church, such haters/framers must be found out.
Whoa…I’ve written to Michelle, Secretary at St. Patrick’s and she defends the goon!
This priest may be severely mentally ill and in dire need of psychiatric care. Given what he said, I wonder if he has ever had fantasies of raping boys? I was thinking of visiting Australia but I’m afraid to go now. I’m dark skinned with black hair on my head, maybe I need some “sperm” wax on my do to lighten it up. I wonder how women and girls feels after having him make derogatory comments about a body part? It’s so strange to talk about people in terms of body parts. I think this guy is coo-coo.
signed,
cholo
ps I’m grateful that the teens helped this happen. They are heroes because they exposed a sick and what seems like a person who could really harm others. Spooky.
Yeah, still available on youtube 🙂 Jesus, God, Christianity; The best lie humankind has ever come up with.
Eagle i know its been some years since you posted and i hope your eyes have opened some more to the real world.
If you looked at the picture as a whole you will realize the camera had a lens commonly used by skateboarders they were getting some footage of tricks.
If you looked outside the box and did some research on the situation you would know it was in Melbourne, Australia.
If you opened your eyes you would realize the majority of the kids were white ethnicity.
I dont care what religion you are, i do care about a little thing called morals they have nothing to do with religion theyre what sane people use when in different situations.
What happened in this video which is obvious to someone who isnt blinded by religion, is that a group of skateboarders were skating at a church Reverend Geoffrey confronted them asking them to leave, they verbally abused the Reverend with such words as pedophile etc. he should have acted like a responsible human being and taken one step back and even left the situation. He put himself in that position where he took authority into his own hands and had to deal with the consequences.
A logical way of going about this would have been to go back inside call the police and they would be away from the church in due time and possibly wont come back due to the warning from police.
Another thing to note is these skateboarders will be skating anywhere, outside a Mcdonalds, car parks, streets, private property, but ill tell you what i highly doubt the manager of Mcdonalds would come outside kicking and screaming about them rather they would call the police.
The moral of the story is kids will be kids i dont know were you come from but this is pretty normal stuff the kids went “wild” once the Reverend had hit one of there friends.
Monsignor Tomlinson claims “a long-standing problem”.
Drink, Feck, Arse, Skateboarders.
http://www.tedfestoz.org
This gang are the ones who have provoked this [spiritual] minded priest. Unfortunately, youths nowadays have became little devils roaming terrorising from day to night. Watch for hooded gangs which identifies their characters of coming enjoyale crimes. God is on Monsignor’s side. Praying for you, Geoff.