VERILY, it is easy to feel sorry for the Archbishop of York. It is bad enough that his departing Dean left a couple of bombs among the pigeons, regarding charging for entry to York Minster and the proposed closure of the Minster library.

On top of those domestic difficulties, Dr David Hope finds himself in the news for something he said more than 30 years ago.

As archbishops go, and day to day you don't meet many, Dr Hope has always struck me as a good one - seeming to be a humane and thoughtful man. Not that we have been introduced. The closest thing to proximity has involved jogging past Bishopthorpe Palace. Me, that is, not the archbishop.

Dr Hope found himself in a national newspaper last weekend for remarks he made about the recently-appointed Bishop of Reading. The report said Dr Hope had once congratulated Dr Jeffrey John on becoming involved in a homosexual relationship.

An Evening Press report saw Dr Hope maintaining that his comments had been taken out of context, by which it is safe to assume he did not say to Dr John: "Get in there, lad - it'll do you the world of good."

At the time Dr Hope was the head of St Stephen's college in Oxford and the future Bishop of Reading was a student in his care. According to the national newspaper report, Dr Hope said the affair "would make him a better human being and a better priest".

Whatever Dr Hope did or did not say, he is right to believe that his comments should have remained private.

Having your conversations from more than 30 years ago repeated and printed in the newspapers is a shocking thought. Can any of us even remember what we were saying in 1970? All sorts of embarrassing scraps of conversation must be out there for those who know where to look.

For most of us, the only way we would discover what we had been saying decades ago would be if we signed up to Friends Reunited and found ourselves haunted by a horribly-retentive, best-forgotten friend who remembered every daft word that ever tripped over our stupid tongues.

The only reason that Dr Hope's private words have been dusted off is that the appointment of the new Bishop of Reading has upset the dottier fringes of the Church of England, where homosexuality, even among now celibate bishops, is a cause of the nastier sort of excitement.

Still, that's enough about archbishops and the church. An agnostic columnist can only tiptoe so far down that aisle. But as the archbishop might have said to the DJ, a spot of privacy would be nice.

Dr Hope and Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox have little in common, but each has seen their private space encroached. Sara Cox has just won a landmark case against tabloid intrusion after the Sunday People published pictures of her naked on her honeymoon.

Cox was outraged and, despite a published apology agreed with the Press Complaints Commission, went ahead and sued the newspaper, and last week won damages of £50,000.

It was clearly wrong that private honeymoon moments should be splashed all over a Sunday newspaper, although such compensation to a well-paid disk jockey seems mighty generous.

A further shading to this case is provided by Sara Cox having appeared in newspapers in her underwear or with her cantilevered cleavage displayed to prominent effect. However, on such occasions she was presumably willing to be snapped, whereas on her honeymoon she was, understandably, hoping for some privacy.

Updated: 11:42 Thursday, June 12, 2003