Alan Gill religious journalist 

Brian Lucas, Sydney priest, offers a few memories of the long-time religious affairs journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald. He was very popular and offered an honest perspective on religious affairs. Alan Gill (1937-2018) died in February this year.

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]In December 1986 I was standing in the back row of the top deck of the M.A. Noble Stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It was the evening of the papal visit youth rally and Pope John Paul II
was in full flight. Sydney Morning Herald religion writer, Alan Gill came out of the media box near me with a facial expression that spoke of irritation and frustration. ‘Brian’, he said, ‘I sometimes despair of my journalist colleagues. Some of them in there are beginning their story with: it was a disappointing crowd to greet the Pope at the SCG’. 

True! There were blocks of empty seats. Something went wrong with the allocations and as an all ticket event the spaces could not be taken up at the last minute. For Alan, however, he was angry that others wanted to see the negative while all he was keen to report was the jubilation among the young people on sharing this time with the Pope.

When Cardinal Clancy appointed me as an official media spokesman in 1985 one of my first interviews was with Alan. We spoke often. When he finished in 1989 he shared his disappointment that the Herald seemed no longer to value a specialist religion reporter. Not only did Alan report the religion news but his weekly column and commentary was compulsory reading for anyone interested in religious affairs. He told me that by far he had the biggest mail response to his writing of any Herald contributor. I would believe it.

As a full-time religious affairs writer his coverage was wide and deep. He sometimes irritated Cardinal Clancy by dealing with sensitive topics but such is the nature of good journalism. Even so, in my experience, he was always fair. He moved from worshipping with the high Anglicans
at St James King Street to embracing Catholicism and was a member of St Mark’s Parish Drummoyne.

In retirement among his works was a lengthy and detailed account of the British child migrant scheme Orphans of Empire (1997). He is survived by his wife Daisy. May he rest in peace.[/s2If]

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