None of which settled us on a year. She filed countless stories through years of fearless investigative reporting under the headline 'Shine the Light'. My friend Sue and I had run it a few times by then. I didn't want to talk and I couldn't keep up. And why not try women priests - because haven't the blokes in frocks done such a good job? But you can still walk up their front path without having to duck a light display, and the bushes aren't weighed down by tinsel and stars. I didn't feel brilliant when I woke that day, but passed it off. https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/ce98106f-ea0b-42cb-a8d7-735e4259de0f.jpg/r0_264_4080_2569_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg, The plight of COVID-trapped seafarers a growing humanitarian issue, Rugby League: Mantellato, Walker back for finals charge; NSWRL release report, Breath of fresh air: Newcastle scientists to examine new asthma treatments, 400,000 seafarers trapped on their ships for more than a year because of COVID, says industry, TOOHEY'S NEWS: Knights' cracks exposed plus new assistant coach revealed. McCarthy said she didn't think it her place to tell the police about it. I'm a blow-in of just five years but they've been here for donkeys. The old man hasn't finished dressing his house, verandah, garage, front and side fences, mailbox, hedge and about a dozen bushes in his front yard yet. “I think by that stage, I was kind of a sounding board to him … He wants to keep me in the loop,” McCarthy replied. When he challenged her about the births or the dead dog or Menzies, and what that had to do with the price of fish, she bristled like a bantam hen and produced another series of extended family historic events - their daughter's trip to London, when his mother broke her hip, the time the water heater blew up and they had to stay with her sister for a few days - as evidence to back her case. Which is why the old man was standing in his front yard shaking his head and his wife was "Tsk"-ing. His wife gave the "Tsk" sound Skippy the Bush Kangaroo used to make when a crowd of French tourists were lost in the bush and she knew she had to find them, give first aid to the guy with the broken leg, help winch him up in the helicopter and guide the rest to safety, despite the flooded river and language difficulties. Joanne McCarthy led the Newcastle Herald's campaign for a royal commission into institutional child sex abuse. There's only so much stupid, though, that I can take. The old man has always hosted the biggest, highest, brightest, flashing-est Christmas light extravaganza and Santa-laden pageantry of any home in our neighbourhood, at least for the five years I've lived here.

There will always be stupid bishops until Catholics rise up and reclaim their church. Last Update. I was fine with that. I can't say I've ever thought of it being much of a risk because by that stage you can hear the crowd at Jenolan Caves down below.

A bishop's stupid comments a few weeks ago set in train a series of events that ended with a resignation. As relationships go, this one has caused a lot of trouble – for the police, the Catholic Church, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and even the Prime Minister. Catherine Armitage is ideas and innovation writer and an editorial writer at The Sydney Morning Herald. The old man dated their arrival from a series of events too weird and arcane for me to have understood at the time, and certainly for my brain to have stored for later retrieval. Then we hit the 5 kilometre mark and I staggered a little. The old man has always hosted the biggest, highest, brightest, flashing-est Christmas light extravaganza and Santa-laden pageantry of any home in our neighbourhood, at least for the five years I've lived here. Just how long, approximately, they'd lived in the area. Across the road from where we were standing, their new neighbour pottered around in the way people do when they've just moved in. Things weren't good in the neighbourhood, was the message from the old man and his wife.

The marathon, held in March each year, came to represent more than just an annual run. "The silly old coot climbs up on a ladder and puts them there," his wife said. Fairfax Media journalist McCarthy is being grilled in the witness box at the special inquiry into how police and Catholic Church priests and officials handled allegations of sexual abuse in NSW's Hunter Region. Dismiss. Following a brief period of working as a nurse at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, McCarthy began her journalism career with a cadetship at the Gosford Star in 1980, before she moved to the Central Coast Express Advocate. The other extraordinary people are the tens of thousands I've met as a journalist, including work colleagues and members of the public. HQ Phone +61 2 4979 5000. So finally the old man said they'd been in their house for donkeys and I congratulated them and ran away. Possibly not the best reasoning, but it seemed sensible at the time. But you can still walk up their front path without having to duck a light display, and the bushes aren't weighed down by tinsel and stars. Things weren't good in the neighbourhood, was the message from the old man and his wife. Bad move.

My advice to Catholics trying to reclaim their church?

I was later diagnosed with bronchitis, which I acknowledge adds a layer of stupid over the whole thing, but the extremes of that day set me up for a couple of gruelling years before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was established in 2012. His links to a journalist are being examined in the Newcastle Supreme Court.Credit:Peter Stoop. The best way to describe what it felt like is to picture the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote when he knows he's about to die and the colour drains out of him, from top to bottom, leaving a grey outline. Jobs; People; Learning; Dismiss Dismiss. His wife, on the other hand, was adamant they moved in before someone's cousin's first baby was born, or maybe it was the second, but after somebody else's dog died - "You remember, the one with three legs" - while Robert Menzies was prime minister and you could still buy milk in glass bottles for shillings, or something like that. Then we hit the 5 kilometre mark and I staggered a little. I was fine with that. My friend - who has never lived down what happened next - said "Are you right?" Possibly not the best reasoning, but it seemed sensible at the time. "No," she said, in response to a question whether she had ever referred to him as “her police officer”. Joanne McCarthy. The kind of "Tsk" that always spells trouble, in other words. She filed countless stories through years of fearless investigative reporting under the headline 'Shine the Light'.

Note how quickly and easily bishops, the Pope and the Vatican were able to dispense with long-held traditions and rites in the face of a pandemic, despite their martyred arguments against removing traditions and rites that allowed church men to rape children on an industrial scale.