Auckland Catholic Bishop, Patrick Dunn, is appalled at an Auckland’s Rock Radio stunt of offering on-air divorce for sale on the station on Valentine’s Day.
In this stunt the station advertised for a wife or husband who wanted to quit their marriage. The Rock would cover the cost of a divorce if the successful applicant was prepared to phone their spouse and tell them live on air that they were going to divorce them. The unsuspecting spouse was to have no knowledge of this until they received a phone call live, on-air.
The Bishop of Auckland, Bishop Pat Dunn, made a public statement on Valentine’s Day, strongly criticising The Rock, saying that the station and its DJs and management were showing contempt for the basic principles of decency and respect upon which our society is built.
The woman who was the successful applicant fooled the DJs into believing that they were phoning her husband, but instead the phone was answered by another woman who identified herself as the “wife” of the applicant, as the two women had undergone a civil union.
So disgusted at The Rock’s lack of respect for marriage they decided to publicly embarrass the radio station and sabotage the programme.
Bishop Dunn said that regardless of the stunt going wrong, the fact remains that what The Rock did was shameless and outrageous. “The break-up of a marriage is always traumatic for the parties involved, whatever the circumstances that have led to it,” he said. “To encourage the public dishonouring of vows with blatant disregard for the feelings of the other, is little less than contemptible,” the bishop said.
Image: Auckland Now