St Mary's Priest gets the Sack
The Archbishop of Brisbane John Bathersby has given notice to the priest of St Mary’s Catholic church at South Brisbane, Father Peter Kennedy, that he should resign by 21 February or he will face the sack. This follows a long stand-off between the congregation and the church hierarchy, in which Father Kennedy has been accused of “performing unorthodox mass and not respecting the church hierarchy”. Read the ABC news item here.
Chief among the congregation’s sins is the acceptance of gays and lesbians including running commitment ceremonies for couples, but the Archbishop is also concerned about the use of “non-conventional terms during baptisms.” He also insists that priests at the church wear “the traditional alb and stole during the mass and they use a Catholic Church-approved eucharistic prayer – not one developed by the community. He also wants lay people to stop giving the homily.” Link.
At a time when the Catholic church is struggling to retain its relevance to modern society, and every other day seems to bring another sexual abuse controversy, it seems odd that a popular local congregation, with a regular attendance at services of around 700, and which is offering unconditional acceptance and respect should be singled out for contempt of the tradition.
And I think this is the key: there was a chap in Palestine about two millennia ago who preached love and acceptance and who was criticised by the church hierarchy for meeting with sinners and prostitutes. St Mary’s isn’t breaching any of the teachings of the Bible: quite the contrary, their commitment to the Gospel should be an inspiration to other churches. Rather, they are out of step with the medieval traditions and regulations of the church hierarchy, which seems to be more interested in maintaining the power structures of the organisation than furthering the aims of what it ostensibly stands for.
I don’t think it matters: Father Peter and his 700 parishioners will find another venue nearby (apparently local schools and other organisations have already offered space) and continue serving the community in ways that they find meaningful. And the Catholic Church loses one more reason for it to exist.
Your Comments
Matthew Smith writes:
This is all part of a retrograde movement in the Roman Catholic Church at the moment. The push is towards re-embracing medieval traditions and doctrines and effectively undo the progress made at Vatican II. My understanding is that the forces at play are similar to those driving fundamentalism: a fear that society is unsafe and corrupt and a belief that returning to simple black and white moral rules will restore a sense of control and safety.
Posted: 10 02 2009 - 09:40 | Permanent link to this comment
John writes:
Yes Matt, that’s how it looks to me too.
And now it seems that the RC church is back to selling indulgences!
Posted: 10 02 2009 - 12:09 | Permanent link to this comment
Peter writes:
St Mary’s South Brisbane is a small congregation by Brisbane standards. Nor is it the only parish or diocese doing good work for social justice. The largest provider of health, education and welfare service in Australia (after the Commonwealth and State governments) is the Catholic church through its parishes, dioceses, religious orders, and agencies. St Marys contributes its small part through Micah projects.
Somehow all of the parishes, agencies, religious orders and dioceses, with the exception of St Mary’s SB, manage to maintain a committment to social justcice and to celebrate the sacraments according to Vatican II, to believe accoring to Vatican II and live their Christian life accoring to the guideance of Vatican II.
All that Bathersby is asking is that St Mary’s continue its good works for social justice and celebrate and believe as other Catholic parishes do.
Its a bit like asking the Labour prime minister to observe the political philosphy of his party and its traditions rather than following the other side. What we have at St Marys is a case of “Tony Abbot” wanting to be preselected for a safe labour seat. I don’t think his chances with the local branch are good! Peter Kennedy is saying I want to be a Catholic priest but I don’t want to follow its philosphy or traditions. Its not running well with the local branch either!
Peter Kenedy has not been sacked. He remains a priest of the diocese of Brisbane and will be finacially supported by that diocese until he dies. He has simply been removed as administrator. Bishops remove and redeploy administrators all of the time. A priest is not an employee and he remains part of the diocese for life unless he chooses to leave it.
It does not seem unreasonable or heavy handed for a bishop to ask a priest to do what he promised to do when he was ordained, which included obedience to his bishop.
Posted: 17 02 2009 - 18:35 | Permanent link to this comment
Furlong writes:
This is apparently not the first time Ratsinger has tried to sack Kennedy (must be something in a name!!). The first time (at least 20 years ago) the previous Archbishop refused to sack Kennedy, and so now there is a new Archbishop who has Pell and Ratsinger as his bosses. Unfortunately the current Archbishop has made himself the meat in the sandwich between Ratsinger and Pell. And Kennedy’s popularity will only increase in this poorly managed process.
Posted: 22 02 2009 - 14:28 | Permanent link to this comment
John writes:
Furlong, I don’t quite get the reference to “twenty years ago”. I know that Cardinal Ratzinger was “Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” from the early 1980s (thanks Wikipedia), but wasn’t aware that he had been involved in doctrinal disputes in Brisbane during that time. Care to elucidate?
Peter, I’m not denying the commitment of the Catholic Church to issues of social justice—they frequently put evangelical protestant churches to shame. I’m saying that Fr Kennedy’s acceptance of gays and women looks a lot more like the inclusive message of the gospel than the doctrine of the RC church does. As a Christian priest I thought his allegiance was to the faith, not to the bureaucracy of the church.
Posted: 22 02 2009 - 23:28 | Permanent link to this comment