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Monsignor Geoffrey (Geoff) Baron was the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He served in a number of Melbourne parishes and was a celebrant on Mass For You At Home for 30 years. [1]
In 2006, he was captured on video dealing with a group of trespassers, after he told them to get off the church property and they refused to leave. Footage of the incident was posted on YouTube, but did not receive widespread attention until July 2007 when Australian media noticed it. [2] The video indicates that he subjected a group of trespassing skateboarders to both verbal insult and physical force in an attempt to remove them from the property.
The Catholic Church apologised for Fr Baron's actions and he was granted leave from his duties at the Cathedral while the situation was considered. A children's rights spokesperson said Baron's comments were disturbing, and recommended he enrol in an anger management course. [3] Fr Baron also publicly apologised on local radio and has been condemned almost universally both from within and outside the Church. [4] No charges were brought, however, as he acted in self-defence and was legally justified.
Further videos have since come to light also showing Fr Baron swearing and physically intimidating skateboarders around St Patrick's Cathedral. [5]
On Tuesday, 21 August 2007, it was announced that Monsignor Baron "freely and spontaneously resigned". [6]
The Catholic Church in Australia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual and administrative leadership of the Holy See. From origins as a suppressed, mainly Irish minority in early colonial times, the church has grown to be the largest Christian denomination in Australia, with a culturally diverse membership of around 5,075,907 people, representing about 19.9% of the overall population of Australia according to the 2021 ABS Census data.
The Cathedral Church and Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and the seat of the Archbishop of Sydney, currently Anthony Fisher OP. It is dedicated to the "Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians", Patroness of Australia and holds the title and dignity of a minor basilica, bestowed upon it by Pope Pius XI on 4 August 1932.
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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is a Latin Rite metropolitan archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Erected initially in 1847 as the Diocese of Melbourne, a suffragan diocese of Archdiocese of Sydney, the diocese was elevated in 1874 as an archdiocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Melbourne and is the metropolitan for the suffragan dioceses of Sale, Sandhurst, Ballarat, and the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Ss Peter and Paul. The Archdiocese of Hobart is attached to the archdiocese for administrative purposes. St Patrick's Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, currently Peter Comensoli, who succeeded Denis Hart on 1 August 2018.
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