Abstract

Gallagher, Paul Your Grace, Brother Bishops and Clergy, Esteemed Religious, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am indeed grateful to Archbishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Catholic Council for Pastoral Research for the invitation to attend your conference and have my say! I am told that this conference is basically about statistics. Mark Twain attributes to Benjamin Disraeli the statement: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics'. Obviously, I can have nothing to do with any of them, so here is the limpid truth.