Bob Maguire, professional crusty old bugger and much loved Catholic priest who made the critical error of taking his vocation seriously and caring for people, has left us at the age of 88, and he shouldn’t have done. By several accounts, he was ousted from his own Father Bob Maguire Foundation last week, and was apparently unaware of the fact himself until it was reported on social media. I feel there’s more to the story regarding what’s happened and why it’s happened now, but the foundation appears to have pulled off an absolute cunt act against an old man in declining health during his last days, and indeed probably helped make them his last days.
I think it’s appropriate to let John Safran have the last word, since he helped bring the old boy to the nation’s attention, and he shall miss him more than most of us.
EDIT: Well, actually, let’s give the p.s. to the Foundation themselves, who I’ve now seen issued a statement the other day:
“…The issues at stake were thoroughly canvassed and considered at a recent VCAT Hearing in which Fr Bob participated. The result of that hearing was that Fr Bob’s family were granted Guardianship in relation to where he lives and what care he gets. VCAT does not make such decisions lightly. It relies on a number of medical views of Fr Bob’s physical and mental condition.
Of particular relevance is that the VCAT decision means that Fr Bob is no longer eligible to be a Board member (or Chairman) of the Foundation. This is a legal dictate under the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019.
I don’t know about anyone else, but that reads to me like a tacit admission that, yeah, the Foundation kind of lied a bit in their previous statement about Bob “stepping down”. If this is a VCAT rule (and it may be, I don’t actually know) that he had to step down, why didn’t they say as much earlier? I also thought this was an interesting further remark after denying all the claims being made against them:
Those familiar with Fr Bob’s mental state are not surprised by recent comments attributed to him. Fr Bob has always been someone who ‘comes out swinging’ in any context. However, in recent times his opinions have taken on an eccentric flavour.
And, obviously, I’m not familiar with his mental state, which I’m guessing was indeed less than optimal, but I do smell a hint of well-poisoning here despite that.
Incidentally, it’s nearly 9.30pm as I write these last words and I find it interesting, shall we say, that I’ve seen no word (at least not on the SMH site, The Age, News.com.au or the Guardian) from any representatives of the Catholic church here in Australia, or from their representatives in the Liberal party, or from anyone in the Liberal party in general (all I’ve seen from the latter is a comment from the Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto) so far today. Weird how quick they were to praise that pedophile enabler a couple of months ago but not Bob now, eh. (I’d be a lot more OK with Bob getting a state funeral than I was the other guy, I must say.) Maybe the church’s media team are just trying to find a way of expressing sadness over his passing without admitting what they really thought of him…