Cue much head-scratching. After all, calling a dude literal scum over a jaunty piano line doesn’t exactly scream empathy. So, during tonight’s appearance on The Project, Minchin explained his take on the issue, and the song’s aftermath, in a much more considered way than the track may have suggested.
“Obviously whenever I say anything about this, they’ll take the most weird thing I said. So look, I don’t particularly feel sorry for him except… I did, watching him, because he’s a person. And I feel empathy for this man who’s got himself in this position, who’s got a huge amount of weight on his shoulders.But then the thing about empathy is you can place it where you need it. And if I go back to read the dozens of letters I got from survivors who were saying the most incredible things about what happened that week, where the national conversation focussed on the veracity of their claims, I knew I’d done the right thing. For me. I think.”
Either way, funds from Come Home (Cardinal Pell) eventually helped survivors travel from Australia to Rome to hear the Cardinal give evidence on the matter in person. That’s empathy.
You can watch his statement on the matter, and his description of the song’s backlash, in the clip below:
We speak to @TimMinchin about the song ‘Come Home (Cardinal Pell)’ & #matildainoz #TheProjectTV https://t.co/WPRF52dPIs
— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) March 15, 2016
