Would you defend a racist, foul-mouthed and homophobic outburst by a priest caught on YouTube?
No? Well plenty of people have been backing the Reverend Monsignor Geoff Baron, the dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia.
He completely lost it when a group of skateboarders refused to get off steps and a dried up fountain outside the cathedral. If you can stomach some very offensive language his ugly rant is captured here.
He has been put on leave by the church, and apologised for his actions, but has not said sorry to the skateboarders that prompted his tirade, describing them as "jackals and hyenas".
The dean has been widely condemned, for example here, here and here (by someone who shouted 'fight, fight, fight,' while watching the video).
The church authorities have also come in for some stick for appearing to be more concerned with the damage done to the steps by the skateboarders than with damage limitation about the outburst.
But the turbulent priest also has his defenders who have turned on the "idiot punk" skateboarders for the way they goaded him and then filmed his outburst.
It's the "underparented and feral" skateboarders who should be monstered, not the priest, says Andrew Bolt blogging on the Herald Sun. He detects a trend in tormenting authority figures and filming their reaction on YouTube, such as this example of a failed attempt to get a reaction from a very stoic security guard.
Have the skateboarders done a public service by exposing hypocrisy and racism at a senior level in the Catholic church, or is their behaviour as bad as the priest's?
