Father Peter Kennedy
Posted on 02/22/2009 1:42:35 PM PST by nickcarraway
ARCHBISHOP John Bathersby's move to rid the Catholic Church of the non-conforming priest and parishioners of St Mary's may have been dealt a blow.
An estimated 1500 people attended mass yesterday morning and hundreds more turned out for evening services on Saturday and yesterday, and for concerts and rallies.
Yesterday morning, those who couldn't squeeze inside the historic Italianate church stood five or more deep around the outside, listening and joining in through doors and windows.
The show of strength prompted a defiant Father Peter Kennedy – sacked last Thursday by a canon law decree issued by the Archbishop – to speculate that events at the church might prompt other parishes to throw off the shackles of conservative Catholicism.
Using a bushfire analogy, St Mary's priest of 28 years said that there were "spot fires" of dissent around Australia and the world.
"This sort of community could actually set those fires off," he said at a media conference after the service.
Father Kennedy did not flout the Archbishop's "decree of removal" by giving communion during the morning mass.
Instead, as a mere "church community member" he gave one reading. But he told the congregation, he would be "back here next week".
"We must stand strong," he said.
Archbishop Bathersby was not available to be interviewed about the weekend's events – the number of St Mary's supporters, the alleged bomb threat he received at his home on Friday or his last-minute backdown on sending in the Dean of St Stephen's Cathedral, Father Ken Howell, to run the services at St Mary's this weekend.
Police confirmed they were investigating the alleged threat to Archbishop Bathersby.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Everyone there should be excommunicated. If need be, the Church should be closed and dismantled.
This passage is at best vague. What really prompted the Archbishop to fire Father Kennedy?
“...non-conforming priest...”
Uh, that must be PC for “heretic”.
Here’s a nice summary:
In 2004 Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane took action over an invalid baptismal formula - ‘Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier’ instead of ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’.
Earlier this year matters came to a head when a statue of Buddha was placed in front of the altar at St Mary’s, prompting letters of complaint to the Archbishop and to the Vatican.
Renegade parish administrator Father Peter Kennedy allows women to preach and homosexual couples can have their relationships blessed.
In one parish bulletin, the Eucharistic Prayer was changed to includes the following:
‘We bring wine, made by many people’s work, from an unjust world where some have leisure and most struggle to survive’.
And the Memorial Acclamation:
I am Inner Stillness Deep within I am I am conscious Presence Deep within I am I am Pure Love Deep within I am.
‘In the sacrament of Eucharist members of the congregation recite the words of consecration, which only an ordained priest are allowed to do.
Approved Eucharistic prayers are completely overlooked in favour of eucharistic prayers selected at random.
A letter from the Archbishop to the Administrator of St Mary’s, Fr Peter Kennedy, dated 22 August 2008, set out a list of reasons why the parish could no longer be considered in communion with the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop wrote: ‘The question for me is not so much whether St Mary’s should be closed down, but whether St Mary’s will close itself down by practices that separate it from communion with the Roman Catholic Church.’
A meeting of St Mary’s parishioners yesterday endorsed a letter to Brisbane Catholic Archbishop John Bathersby that rejected a series of church demands.
The St Mary’s parish and its priests, Peter Kennedy and Terry Fitzpatrick, may be excommunicated for their stand. Under pressure from the Vatican, Archbishop Bathersby had given the church until today to fall in line with orthodox standards.
In a letter to be hand-delivered to the archbishop today, the cafeteria Catholics at St Mary’s reject the Vatican’s claim that it is not in communion with the Catholic Church.
How can you be in communion with the Catholic Church yet reject what the church teaches? How do people live with such contradictions in their lives?
http://secularheretic-st.blogspot.com/2008/12/parish-at-risk-of-excommunication.html
The parish should be canonically dissolved (or whatever it is properly called), the priests ousted from ministry and the church building closed and maybe destroyed.
EMBATTLED priest Father Peter Kennedy collapsed and was rushed to hospital last night.
It was only hours after leading an emotional final Mass at St Mary’s South Brisbane.
With St Mary’s full to overflowing during the 5pm Mass, 71-year-old Father Kennedy again exhorted his followers to continue as a congregation.
******
sacked Father Peter Kennedy — dumped for blessing gay couples and allowing women to preach
Yesterday, he also defended his church’s social activism, telling 600 people at St Mary’s Sunday Mass that Jesus also was harshly criticised for unorthodox behaviour.
Fr Kennedy said he was also considering legal advice over possible action in Queensland’s industrial courts, claiming unfair dismissal.
Father Peter Kennedy
“EMBATTLED priest Father Peter Kennedy collapsed and was rushed to hospital last night.
It was only hours after leading an emotional final Mass at St Mary’s South Brisbane.”
It appears Someone was not amused.
Thanks. Not being a Catholic, I hadn’t heard of this story before. I now see why the Church hierarchy sacked him.
“If need be, the Church should be closed and dismantled.”
“Uh, that must be PC for “heretic”.”
Back in 2003 a Russian priest “married” a couple of men. He was defrocked as a heretic and the chapel in which the “marriage” took place was demolished...not a stone left on a stone.
That’s the EXACT case I was thinking of!!!
Great minds think alike. :)
Why hasn’t Bathersby simply changed the locks?
It seems to me that the Bishop’s sin is the greater here. The priest seems to be an unrepentant heretic who is simply doing what he believes, ugly and sad as that is. However, it is obvious that the bishop has known about this for some time, probably years from what I gather, and has done nothing at all beyond writing a couple of letters. I find it hard to believe that if he saw someone stealing his car he would be this lax in a response, but would act immediately and demand that others do as well. But here we see a man leading numerous souls astray and acting to sow schism in the Church, and the bishop, who admits to knowing that the actions of the priest are wrong, is simply sitting idle while people may actually be dragged down to hell. As bad as the priest is it is bishops of this sort that actually bear the responsibility for these errors and heresies.
This is really quite simple....regardless of how they advertise themselves .....they really aren’t at all.....
oops ...”really aren’t Catholic”
He’s married gays, used invalid baptisms (thus depriving the baptized of the ordinary means of salvation), and incorporated pagan gods into the mass.
You’d think from this write-up he just used the “wretch” phrase from Amazing grace, wouldn’t you?
(If you don’t know what I’m referring to, Catholics use a slight re-write of “amazing grace” because “a wretch like me” has been inferred to contradict the doctrine of prevening grace in favor of the Calvinist doctrine of utter depravity. Hence, “saved a wretch like me” is changed to “saved and set me free.”)
Thanks for the explanation. I'm a nominal Baptist (that is, I don't go to church much), so that one would have whizzed right over my head.
You’re welcome. “Real” Catholics are real picky that liturgical (”within the mass”) music should always instruct correct doctrine. That’s why a lot of conservative Catholics hate Marty Haugen, the St. Louis Jesuits, etc.: They write real Catholic-SOUNDING music, without specifically heretical lines, but they out the emphasis on an entirely wrong point. For instance, “We bring a sacrifice of finest wheat,” is technically true, but downright offensive when the redemptive sacrifice is the eternal sacrifice made by Christ on Calvary, which we participate in by offering up our sinful, worldly ways (mortification).
To clarify:
“conservative Catholics hate Marty Haugen, the St. Louis Jesuits.”
Of course, good Christians don’t hate people. What I mean by that is that they hate the music of Marty Haugen and the St. Louis Jesuits, which have become brand names of sorts.
Do you really??? In another article just up from this one, it claims the Bhuddist statue turned out to be a monk, not a Bhuddist...Perhaps truth in reporting doesn't apply to this article...
The esteemed archbishop hasn't EVER visited the church in question...And this priest has been doing the same thing at this church for about 27 years, according to the other article...
The archbishop claimed he just recently received complaints about this church...Apparently nary a bishop has ever visited the church either...
Interesting religion...But not appealing...
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