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St Mary's priest will take his flock with him (renegade priest to break with Rome)
Courier Mail ^ | January 9, 2009 | Trent Dalton

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Moral Issues; Theology
KEYWORDS: adios; au; catholic; heretics
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To: ArrogantBustard

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.


61 posted on 01/13/2009 9:38:28 AM PST by vladimir998 (Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Jerome)
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To: GCC Catholic; tioga
A warning to Buffalo-area Catholic FReepers: It is my understanding that the heretical Spiritus Christi sect is gaining some influence in the Diocese of Buffalo. Hearsay on my part, but keep an eye out for it. /i p Tioga - fyi
62 posted on 01/13/2009 9:42:50 AM PST by NYer ("Run from places of sin as from a plague." - St. John Climacus)
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To: SaintDismas

“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.


63 posted on 01/13/2009 9:45:50 AM PST by tioga (Let us unite in prayer for our country.)
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To: jilliane
Re: Married Priests and Nuns:

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.

64 posted on 01/13/2009 9:53:12 AM PST by GCC Catholic (0bama, what are you hiding? Just show us the birth certificate...)
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To: jilliane
I had intended to answer you earlier, but left for noon mass. Wow, did you ever get answers!

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.

65 posted on 01/13/2009 10:07:24 AM PST by tioga (Let us unite in prayer for our country.)
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To: NYer

are they attracting the faithful, or are they attracting the sinners who wish to create chaos?


66 posted on 01/13/2009 10:10:31 AM PST by tioga (Let us unite in prayer for our country.)
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To: NYer

renegade, just like our kennedys here in america.


67 posted on 01/13/2009 10:12:03 AM PST by Coleus (Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!)
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To: kstewskis

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


68 posted on 01/13/2009 10:22:28 AM PST by jilliane
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To: jilliane
What bishop? Archbishop Buechlein of Indianapolis told us he could not imagine a faithful Catholic voting for a pro-abortion candidate. Archbishop Buechlein is not one for getting involved in politics, and is a rather shy and quiet man. If HE spoke up, it indicates the Bishops are concerned about Catholics voting for pro-abortion candidates. The letter from the American Bishops which was distributed to most parishes made it very plain where our responsibility rested, and it was to vote against pro-abortion candidates. The only exception would be if both candidates were pro-abortion, and then we are to choose the one we feel will do the least harm.

So, which bishop wrote you a letter?

69 posted on 01/13/2009 10:38:23 AM PST by Miss Marple
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To: tioga

I appreciate your thoughts...


70 posted on 01/13/2009 10:39:36 AM PST by jilliane
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To: SaintDismas
Mother Angelica comes to mind, boy she never backed down from what she wanted to accomplish, did she.

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.

71 posted on 01/13/2009 10:52:06 AM PST by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: caseinpoint
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.

Great insight!

72 posted on 01/13/2009 10:55:28 AM PST by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: tioga
so you are at the seat of the diocese of Rochester.....I am at farthest end of the diocese...

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! :-)

73 posted on 01/13/2009 11:02:01 AM PST by rochester_veteran ( http://RochesterConservative.com)
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To: NYer

Where’s your collar, padre?


74 posted on 01/13/2009 11:11:08 AM PST by Antoninus (America didn't turn away from conservatism, they turned away from many who faked it. - Mark Sanford)
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To: jilliane
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.

Your post explains about 3/4 of your problem. I'm willing to bet the priest you work for is rather similar to this so-called priest profiled in this article.

The Church will be much better off when all such men retire and are safely out of circulation. Their "reverse catechesis" has done tremendous harm to the faithful over the past 40 years.
75 posted on 01/13/2009 11:17:18 AM PST by Antoninus (America didn't turn away from conservatism, they turned away from many who faked it. - Mark Sanford)
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To: NYer
You should get yourself a countdown clock for Clark like this one ...

Great idea, NYer! When I'm done, I'll post it to RochesterConservative!

76 posted on 01/13/2009 11:20:44 AM PST by rochester_veteran ( http://RochesterConservative.com)
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To: SaintDismas
You know, the claim by some misguided souls that women don’t have any real power in the Catholic Church is really amusing to me. Ask all the Teresa’s that come to mind. Let’s see, there’s the Doctors of the Church, Mother Teresa, hmmm. Mother Angelica comes to mind, boy she never backed down from what she wanted to accomplish, did she.

Mother Angelica is a classic example--but most of the so called "feminists" in the Church hate her. Kind of like how the Black activists hate Clarence Thomas. They despise anyone who proves their claims are groundless.
77 posted on 01/13/2009 11:24:55 AM PST by Antoninus (America didn't turn away from conservatism, they turned away from many who faked it. - Mark Sanford)
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To: Antoninus

Grossly judgmental and wrong.


78 posted on 01/13/2009 11:27:16 AM PST by jilliane
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To: jilliane
Grossly judgmental and wrong.

Really? Let me ask you this--how many vocations to the priesthood and religious life has your parish generated over the past 10 years?
79 posted on 01/13/2009 11:31:23 AM PST by Antoninus (America didn't turn away from conservatism, they turned away from many who faked it. - Mark Sanford)
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To: NYer; tioga
I have the clock posted on the left sidebar, just below the login section:

RC's new countdown to Clark's retirement clock, courtesy of NYer! :-)

80 posted on 01/13/2009 11:35:36 AM PST by rochester_veteran ( http://RochesterConservative.com)
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