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 ...
You wrote about:
“blessing homosexual couples”
Your comment: “Says everything we need to know about this creep ... time for him to go.”
Boy, did you ever nail it.
Could not be more plain.
“the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world”....women are in pursuit of power, and God gave them the power, they just do not recognize it.
Priests and nuns are not normatively permitted to marry because when married, their loyalties are divided. The unmarried man or woman can be about the work of God; he need not have to worry about what they must do to care for his spouse. (see 1 Cor. 7:32-35). The pastoral provision for priests is an exceptional situation. It is neither normative nor taken on without the greatest amount of discernment.
they struggle to grow their community as their defined demographic priest is very difficult to find.
Genuine orthodoxy attracts vocations. The dioceses and religious orders that hold fast to the teachings of the Magisterium are growing. Those that do not are withering away.
The priests and nuns so quick to enter into disobedience and leave the Church are not "good" priests and nuns. The best we can do for them is to pray for them.
Most young priests/nuns have no desire to pursue novel liberal opinions. We simply are not interested ("we" speaking in my experience as a seminarian).
You are entitled to your opinions (which other posters have explained the counterpoints of), but know that those opinions are a symptom of the problem, not the source of the solution.
The priest is blessing homosexual couples. He is blessing their coupleness. Our Bishop allowed that in Rochester...even attending these events...(as you may have noticed if you read the thread)...and the Vatican came down on him as well. He had to renounce it. The priest who was blessing these couples, like this one from Australia, broke from the Catholic Church rather than submit to the authority of the Church. He took with him a Catholic nun, who later was ordained in his new church, and a lot of the congregation. He created a schism.
These priests took vows to be priests...to be obedient...they are breaking those vows. It is very sad and very wrong.
We pray for sinners, we do not encourage them to sin. It is the Roman Catholic Church's right and obligation to protect the faith from apostasy and heresy.
are they attracting the faithful, or are they attracting the sinners who wish to create chaos?
renegade, just like our kennedys here in america.
Really excellent reading and intelligent points. I also appreciate your courtesy and respectful tone.
In the “pastoral counseling”...the church was forced to later retract statments by those we were taught it was a mortal sin to question. Touch the host to the teeth and forever be damned. How many holy, good people lived and died in agony because the host touched their teeth?
Speaking of pastoral counseling, how about my letter in my desk drawer from our bishop telling me that it is ok to vote for pro-abortion candidates as long as the candidate does not make it a political platform?
Hatred of gay people attending this Priest’s catholic church- “The inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love” - Pope Benedict TO THE BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND DEACONS MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN HOPE
So, which bishop wrote you a letter?
I appreciate your thoughts...
She's a hero of mine. Have you read her biography by Raymond Arroyo? It's amazing.
Aren't the saints wonderful? Like you say, the variety (from "The Little Flower" to Joan of Arc, from Mother Theresa to Mother Angelica) is glorious. There is a role model for everyone in any walk of life.
Great insight!
I kind of guessed that from your user name.
I have family members that are clergy, so I've met Bishop Clark a few times. He comes off as a nice guy, however; his shepherding has been done from the liberal POV and you've witnessed what that brought us. Not only was the Corpus Christi/Spiritus Christi situation deplorable, how about the closing of the Catholic schools after spending over $11 million on the Sacred Heart Cathedral renovation and the "gay Mass" that he presided over in 1997. How about him wiping the slate clean for all the priests when he took over as Bishop, that included abusive pederasts!
I better stop now, my blood pressure is rising! :-)
Where’s your collar, padre?
Great idea, NYer! When I'm done, I'll post it to RochesterConservative!
Grossly judgmental and wrong.
RC's new countdown to Clark's retirement clock, courtesy of NYer! :-)
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