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Media Release
Seminar to ask why Honesty Matters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 8 February 2005
Contact: Sr. Patty Fawkner on (02) 9356 3888

Pre-publicity notice

In the course of the past year dramatic examples of perceived lack of honesty in politics, sport and corporate life have made news across the nation. Less obvious, however, are the effects on personal lives and relationships - and the nation's integrity - if honesty is no longer seen as essential in daily life.

Sister Patty Fawkner, director of Uniya, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre which organises the seminars said, "There is a crisis of truth and honesty in public life. Even the prospect of talking about truth is in crisis. When 43 eminent former public servants sought to keep alive the debate about truth in government they were summarily dismissed as 'doddery daiquiri diplomats'". The worrying thing is not that the diplomats were marginalised, but that the debate itself was sidelined.

"Honesty and truth matter in every aspect of public and personal life, just as dishonesty and lack of transparency matter. We know that the truth can discomfort and disturb us, but experience also affirms Jesus' teaching that the truth will set us free. Honesty is the basis of human community and human solidarity.

"Another aspect of the crisis we currently face is that we are profoundly uncertain as to what is the truth, how we may access it, who is being honest and whom we should trust. There is a profound mistrust that politicians, business executives, church leaders and the media are being honest with us. We need to recover our trust in each other and this will only happen when we individually and as a society learn to cherish honesty again, for its own sake, as something incalculably valuable to our human dignity.

"Our 2005 Lenten Seminars aim to bring to centre stage the debate about honesty in daily life. The series will bring together a number of Jesuits and people prominent in public life to consider matters of honesty and why honesty still matters", she said.

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