The archbishop of Sydney has dropped a defamation suit against Australian comedian Catherine Deveny in light of her recent apology.
Her offense? Tweeting a link to an image macro that jokingly painted him as a pedophile.
It started April 10, when the archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, suffered a public relations embarrassment. During a televised debate with atheist writer Richard Dawkins, Pell said, “We were preparing young English boys for Holy Communion.” He paused awkwardly after the word “boys,” though, prompting audience laughter.
A blogger and performer known in part for her one-woman comedy show God Is Bullshit, Deveny soon tweeted a link to another user’s hastily made image macro of Pell’s face accompanied with the text, “We were preparing young English boys.” Her followers would “love” the joke, she reportedly wrote.
Pell, though, did not love it.
Nine days later, Pell’s lawyers sent a defamation claim letter to both Deveny and to Twitter itself. It noted that the implication that Pell was engaged in pedophilia was “false, indefensible.” Pell has long struggled with accusations that he offered aid to priests who molested children.
The claim addressed Twitter clunkily, referring to Deveny’s tweet as a “publication” that must be “removed” from the site. It requested that Twitter, via snail mail, send confirmation that the tweet was removed.
In response, Deveny deleted the tweet and wrote a lengthy, sarcastic apology:
“I apologize unreservedly for any hurt Cardinal Pell may have suffered from me tweeting a meme on April 10 that used his image and five words he said. … Clearly it was significant enough hurt and embarrassment caused for him to lawyer up and spend the Catholic Church’s money to pursue defamation action against Twitter and me. There must have been deep deliberation over the decision to spend thousands of dollars of parishioners’ money on legal fees.”
That was enough for Pell’s legal team, apparently. They dropped the suit Tuesday evening.
It’s unclear if Twitter could have been held liable for its users accused of defamation in Australia.
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Daily Dot and never referenced Pell’s suit on its official blog. Pell’s legal team also declined to comment.
Deveny has since moved on to other topics. Thursday morning, in response to a Twitter user who criticized her support for gay marriage, she tweeted, “suck my dicks.”
Photo from Memegenerator