Posted on 01/13/2009 6:50:29 AM PST by NYer
MAVERICK priest Father Peter Kennedy says he will lead a breakaway congregation if Brisbane's catholic Archbishop forces him to leave St Mary's Church.
There are fears that exclusion from the historic South Brisbane property will be the final act in a long-running dispute that has reached the Vatican. The dispute has attracted national and international attention because it represents the battle between conservative and less traditional forces within the Catholic Church.
There are more Roman Catholics in Australia than any other religious group. Each week, St Mary's attracts large congregations while many more orthodox Catholic parishes struggle to fill pews. In a rare and exclusive interview, Father Kennedy said he was determined to carry on. "The reality is that, if we are excluded from this church, the Trades and Labor Council have already offered us their place just down the road," he said. "I will continue. Our community will continue down there. We get 800 to 900 people coming every week. It's a vibrant, alive mass with people from all over the city."
St Mary's is known for its unconventional Catholic practices - allowing women to preach, blessing homosexual couples and recognising with ritual the traditional sovereignty of the indigenous people of the area. The latest round in the battle was sparked by a complaint direct to the Vatican in August from an aggrieved church-goer.
Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby accused the parish of operating outside the accepted practices of the Roman Catholic Church and encouraged Father Kennedy to fall in line or face closure. The parishioners responded to the accusations but - in a follow-up letter to Father Kennedy, dated December 22 - Archbishop Bathersby said: "St Mary's has not yet adequately given proof of its communion with the Archdiocese of Brisbane and the Roman Catholic Church."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
I wonder what exactly he blessed. Did he bless homosexuals in the congregation generally and tell them they are not hated in his church and he blesses them as people? Or, did he call gay couples to the front of the church and bless their ‘couplehood’ in an exploitive way - did he say, “We celebrate your gay relationship!”? To some extremists it doesn’t matter because they are filled with hatred toward gay people. The article does not provide enough info.
With all due respect: you’re grasping at straws.
Go to the link. Read the article. All of it. Including the extensive direct quotes from Fr. (for the moment) Kennedy.
He condemns himself.
This is all the info you need to know.
----snip----
Father Peter Kennedy: "If the church doesn't come to terms with the fact that the church has to operate within a liberal democracy, while it continues to act like a monarchy where all power is invested in the leadership of the Pope, then there's no hope, we'll be down to 3 per cent."
Ah, those "progressive" chr*stians. They love to tear their own religion to shreds while promoting religious fundamentalism among the "indigenous pipples!"
The Church Magesterium and it's doctrines existed before 1965. They were not abolished after Vatican II. Many Catholics forget this grave error.
It is evident in what you post that you were not properly catechised in your Catholic schooling, and have little connection with the Church that was established in 33AD. Go and read some of the Pope's encyclicals....here's a suggestion. Read "The Popes Against Modern Errors" (TAN Books), there are 16 Papal documents that should answer your questions. Key in on the ones that address Modernism, Liberalism, errors, and False Opinions.
LOL!
One of those 'rare' occasions when the bishop took action, albeit after the Vatican told him to do so. Yes, I remember the Corpus Christi event quite well. Since then, deaconess Mary Ramen was ordained by the American Catholic Church.
Bishop Clark needed to have his arm twisted to take action with Callan, Ramerman and the rest of the apostates.
Well, isn't that special. No editorializing there, no sir. So I guess this reporter's extensive theological and pastoral training leads him to conclude that unless you're hip and with it like Fr. Kennedy, your parish is in trouble.
The homily is supposed to be given by the priest. Women in our church who feel the need to speak are given time before mass or at various retreats, committees, Bible studies, seminars and the like.
The shortage of sisters stems from a lack of vocations for several decades. A married woman can be a Catholic missionary, and many are. Sisters are a different category, and the idea of a married nun is simply inconceivable to me. What vows would she take? Would her husband take vows, too? What about if she were sent somewhere and the husband had to quit his job? The idea of a married sister seems ridiculous to me.
Long ago when I was young and foolish and not a Catholic, I was all up in arms about the Church's ruling on birth control. Pope Paul VI said that it would lead to adultery, divorce, abortion, sexual promiscuity, and the devaluation of women.
Guess what? Thirty-five years later, here we are and all of those things have come to pass.
I listen to Pope Benedict. The Church stands for Eternal Truth, not the whims of societal opinion.
People who have driven their lives way off the road expect the powers-that-be to simply move the guardrails and re-pave things to accomodate their new route.
so you are at the seat of the diocese of Rochester.....I am at farthest end of the diocese...
With all due respect: we will disagree and I’m certainly not grasping at anything. I did read the article and the quotes. And, I’m not in the mood to discuss this any deeper as it will go no where...and I have a meeting in 2 minutes with the priest I work for.
Only priests may preach during Mass. Laymen and women are free to preach at other times.
Why can’t priests marry? Priests used to be able to marry until the church and the wives disagreed over the priest & wifes’ property when the priest died.
This is a liberal urban legend. The norm for priests has always been celibacy. While celibacy was not always required as a discipline, consider that married priests had to abstain from the marital act. Even in the Eastern particular churches, only celibates may be ordained to the episcopacy, and married priests have many challenges balancing their family and parish. Celibacy is a wise discipline.
Why can’t a Catholic nun be married and be recognized?
That makes no sense. The nature of a nun is to be a celibate. You can't be a celibate if you want to marry. If you want to do charity work, who's stopping you? You can even join a religious order as a lay affiliate:
Third Order of Saint Dominic
The National Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order - USA
As you wish ... When you get back, I wonder if you could enlighten us as to how the priest you work for compares to Fr. Kennedy.
“Why must these leftists insist upon foisting their bizarre beliefs upon the faithful of an established religion, that rejects their perversions?”
The simple answer is that liberals want a power base from which to operate. They have a hard time creating a decent, stable one on their own so they prefer to be like a parasite and use another group’s power base. A couple things come to mind for me (and since I’m nursing a headache right now, that’s about all I can muster right now), first, the Vietnam War caused a lot of draft dodgers to go into seminaries to avoid serving and as they delved into those schools, they saw that congregations and religious organizations could be a viable power base for their decidedly non-religious aspirations; second, when “Billlyyyons” Carl Sagan was alive, he wrote an article imploring pastors to turn over to him and his acolytes their congregations so they could be properly taught Sagan’s liberal views. The Catholic Church is still a viable power case and so will continue to be a target of leftists who want the power without having to create and sustain it themselves.
“Women in our church who feel the need to speak” - that said a lot.
“Only priests may preach during Mass. Laymen and women are free to preach at other times.” -
That’s the question.
“This is a liberal urban legend”
Absolutely wrong.
“The nature of a nun is to be a celibate.”
The tradition of a nun is to be a celibate - the nature of a nun is to do the work of the church.
Well said, Miss Marple.
Short meeting.
Jesus is the Truth and the head of His Church. To be out of doctrinal communion with the Church means separation from the Body of Christ. This group has already left the Church materially, if not formally.
As Yogi Berra said..."you could look it up."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.