Which is it, the paper made this up and it never happened, or the Bishop’s apology for his excesses?
I would have never apologized, because he did nothing wrong. I also would have gone all "Dagger John" on the nasty small-minded church women who took this story to the media and are refusing to accept the apology and continuing to trash the man on local radio.
But if you think about it it's certainly a viable strategy, as it quickly separates the reasonable from the haters. You have to be a real jerk to continue to trash the man after an apology like that.