On a distasteful note, in Brisbane, Australia, the way-out-there Peter Kennedy is splitting a group even farther from Holy Church and taking it on the road.
My emphases and comments.
This is from ABC:
A controversial church congregation in South Brisbane has declared itself a Catholic community in exile.
The keys to St Mary’s Catholic Church will be handed back to Brisbane’s Archbishop John Bathersby next month after Father Peter Kennedy was removed as administrator, due to unorthodox practices.
The congregation is preparing to move 200 metres down the road to the Trades and Labour Council building, where weekly masses [maybe] will be held.
Father Peter Kennedy says it will be a dignified handover of church property and he expects most parishioners will move with him.
"I could be wrong but I would expect about 95 per cent to come. It’s very gracious of the Trades and Labour Council to invite us," he said.
"I’m hoping that somehow people within the community will come up with some ideas about how we might rent. We couldn’t buy one, but we could rent something."
He says he is still a Catholic priest and regular masses and baptisms will be held, but in a different place. [Invalidly. And it is true he is still a priest. He will be forever. Priests remain priests even after death…. even in hell.]
"I think we’ve lost the fight by being pushed out of here, by being excluded from here, but have they won the battle? That is the question."
The Trades and Labour Council building will be refit prior to becoming the new temporary base.
He obviously wanted the press to know.
There is another story here, at the Courier Mail.
REBEL Catholic priest Peter Kennedy expects 95 per cent of his 1000-strong congregation at St Mary’s South Brisbane to leave the church with him. [95%?]
He also believes his eviction from the church is being closely followed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier Anna Bligh, who have both attended mass at St Mary’s. [?!?]
"On the second Sunday after Easter we will gather as a community here and we will walk down to the TLC Building," Fr Kennedy said yesterday after presiding over mass at St Mary’s. [Note the language used by the writer.]
"I expect 95 per cent of the congregation to go with me."
Fr Kennedy, 71, who has to quit St Mary’s by April 20, said he would move to the Trades and Labour Council Building, which he dubbed the "Totally Lapsed Catholics Building" or the "Tender Loving Care Building". [clever, too… you can probably come up with your own witty meanings for that acronym]
The move follows a mediated agreement [I wonder if in that mediation any possibility was raised that Kennedy might go to jail.] last week between the St Mary’s community and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane over Fr Kennedy’s removal for unorthodox practices, including changes to the liturgy, recognition of gay people and marriage of divorcees. [Again… notice the language "recognition of gay people".]
Fr Kennedy had been defying Archbishop John Bathersby’s February cannon [kaboom!] law decree of removal by refusing to hand over the keys to St Mary’s to new administrator Dean Ken Howell.
Fr Kennedy, a priest for 44 years including 28 at St Mary’s, said he still rejected Archbishop Bathersby’s claim that St Mary’s was operating outside the Church. [Again, the language. "Claim"?]
"We’ve lost the fight but have we lost the battle?" Fr Kennedy said.
He predicted the Catholic Church was "pragmatic enough" to change radically, including allowing women to become leaders. [Women can be leaders. They can’t be priests.]
"The Church when it is facing annihilation can turn itself around," he said.
Fr Kennedy said he was not afraid of being excommunicated, because the move was "just words". [okaaay…]
"They can’t burn you at the stake these days," he said. "We live, thank God, in a liberal-democratic society.
"That’s the question the Church has to face: How it can be a feudal system working in a liberal democracy." [?]
He said Mr Rudd, when in Opposition, had "sat on the floor" of St Mary’s and also given a keynote address to social justice organisation Mica Projects, which operated from St Marys’ House.
Ms Bligh had attended baptismal masses at the church and supported Mica projects.
Fr Kennedy said he had no plans to retire and expected to still receive some financial support from the Catholic Church. [perhaps a topic of the mediation?]
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Perhaps the Archbishop can finally make a public excommunication?
And just to point out to readers, Premier Anna Bligh is reported to be an
atheist.
Why don’t they just excommunicate the guy and get it over with!. Or don’t they have they guts to!.
Yes, he deserves the boot. How can someone be a priest for 40 some odd years and only now be noticed for his flaws… eeeeks. I wonder if he is only just losing his mind now, but actually was once a proper priest. I find this story incredibly sad.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with him. Dos his vowel of obedience mean so little to him? [Yah… I guess it’s not consonant with his present belief operating system.]
As he has not baptised validly for at least the last 20 years who is taking with him to the TLC building? I suspect not many Catholics. As he has stated his lack of belief in the divinity of Christ on several occassions presumably not many Christians either.
Thank God for Pell, but questions should be ask why other Australian bishops tolerate and encourage such priests. It was only Rome’s insistance that got things to this stage.
hmmm Trades and Labour Council Building TLCB
Taking Liberties (with) Catholic Beliefs?
Trashing Legitimate Catholic Bishop?
Turpe Ludiculum Blattae Cloacae
Typical Liberal Catholic Bashers
I learned of a parish in Longmont, CO that has split. I do not know all the details but the ‘ecumenical catholic’ church shares space now with another protestant church–lutheran. A priest went with them. They say they believe in apostolic succession and ‘catholic tradition’ and also married priests and women priests and everyone is welcome at the table. Schismatic. Many went with them. I know that if some of my very ‘liberal’ relatives had the chance, they would also follow this course to a church more of their liking yet having some ‘catholic’ trappings.
I recently watched a TV show* that had Father Kennedy on its panel. He is so mixed up when it comes to scripture. He really believes his own pronouncements.** Just pray for him and his “community”. They need lots of help.
*on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
**Any educated atheist could pick up a Bible and see that it clearly says just the opposite things, to what Fr Kennedy said on this TV show.
N.B. I am not saying that an atheist would believe the things that he would read in the Bible about Our Lord’s claims as to who is really is, just that an atheist could read and understand what is actually written there.
Father Kennedy said that Our Lord never claimed to be God!
Wow! he needs reading remedial classes, or perhaps he does not have the same Bible as other people.
Tim: Why did I know you would be the first to chime in?
(dreaming a bit too much here)
20 April: Father Kennedy moves out of St. Mary’s, South Brisbane.
21 April: FSSP moves into St. Mary’s, South Brisbane.
(end excessive dreaming)
Fr. Kennedy has joined Adam’s rebellion. Pride is at the core of this.
e says he is still a Catholic priest and regular masses and baptisms will be held, but in a different place. [Invalidly
Invalidly?? Certainly at least the baptisms will be valid (even a non-Christian can baptize validly)
And are not the consecrations, while illicit, still valid? (please explain)
Tantumergo —
Part of why Fr. Kennedy got into trouble with his bishop is that Fr. Kennedy didn’t believe in using the baptismal formula handed down to all Christians by Christ Himself. His wording was indeed invalid as well as illicit, and did not count as baptizing anyone upon which it was used.
So if he also feels that he’s more creative than Christ and celebrates Mass with similar lack of fidelity to the words, it’s quite possible that his Masses will also be both invalid and illicit, instead of just being illicit.
Tantum: He is infamous for his invalid baptisms. Furthermore, he does not believe what the Church believes about the Christ.
Too
Little
Christianity
For those who want to check out Fr Kennedy’s utterances live on last week’s Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s TV program ‘Q & A” [Questions and Answers) just click here: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/
Guests include Fr Kennedy (“PP” S Brisbane, Bettina Arndt, Tony Abbott.
* Tony Abbott – Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
* Kate Ellis – Minister for Youth and Sport
* Father Peter Kennedy – Rebel Priest
* Bruce Wolpe – Newspaper Executive
* Bettina Arndt – Commentator and Sex Therapist
The strong-stomached may want to look!
Apropos Fr Kennedy’s performance – the show should be rebadged as ‘Enough Rope’! Golly – there he is on National TV this time (never mind his bleats about nasty people – aka other Catholics from outside his parish/’sect’ – recording his abuses!) confessing his disbelief of the Divinity of Christ, his dissent from Catholic moral teaching on abortion, contraception and, on the side, his self-belief in his own niche community’s right to fabricate its liturgy. Astonishingly brazen! And the bright side is that his publicly recorded apostasy completely trumps any earlier amateur recordings delating him to the Roman authorities!
(written from a Jewish perspective) I have a suggestion for Fr Kennedy and his followers; why not make the move to Reform Judaism?
They don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus, nominally believe in the Divinity, don’t see any requirements/obligations of Law from the Tanakh, understand faith through the prism of modernity, believe in female religious leaders and alternative marriage and don’t have any religious rituals of significance. Fr Kennedy could ditch all the trappings of oppressive Catholicism (his perspective not mine) and be free to do and say whatever he liked – and he could maintain that Jesus was a fundamentally good guy, born normally, not divine, all the while focussing on social justice issues and other 1st world indulgent luxuries.
Kennedy said:
“They can’t burn you at the stake these days,” he said. “We live, thank God, in a liberal-democratic society.
)(
No, but this idiot is freely setting the stage to burn himself at the stake of eternal damnation. While, of course, we can’t judge the state of his soul objectively, we can theologically as well as canonically and it doesn’t look too good for him. All of those people following this piper all the more will add to his agony for his leading them astray from the One True Fold. At this point, he is at least a heretic. He can’t not know that in the basic, most simple definitions, he is wrong and deliberately choosing the wrong.
He also said:
“That’s the question the Church has to face: How it can be a feudal system working in a liberal democracy.”
Easy. The Church is what She is. He knew that when he signed on and thus embraced the Church as a whole, “feudal” or otherwise. To whine about this now and try to change things to suit is own tastes is immature and childish on this “priest’s” part–not to mention selfish.
Hi Tony, I’m not strong-stomached enough to watch Q and A when Fr Kennedy is not on. What did Tony Abbot have to say?
Thank you
Totally Ludicrous Charlatan Banished
Is a priest that finds himself in hell, the ecclesiological equivalent of a bad police officer sentenced to life in prison?
Will he find the inmates in hell as accommodating as does the convicted cop?
You know, some enterprising Catholic apologist who knows his stuff out in Brisbane should publicly challenge this priest to a debate… on any topic, on his turf, and on his terms.
While its pretty unlikely that Fr. Kennedy could be convinced of his error, it might sow a few seeds in some of the people who follow him, once he’s shown to not really know what he’s talking about when it comes to scripture or the church.
Remember, his congregation have probably have never heard an opposing viewpoint, and might be surprised to find out that the dribble he’s been spewing out really has no foundation.
OUTSIDE THE CHURCH NO SALVATION!!!!!!!!!!
Magdalene, how did you come to find out about the irregular parish in Longmont? I’d be interested to find out more about it. I’m from St John the Baptist there. There’s another parish, St Francis of Assisi, that used to be called something else, and was at least schismatic. I’ve recently found out about another “community”, which is Old Catholic, or something like that. Not surprisingly, the person whom I met from there wasn’t eager to talk about it. But anyway, I’d be interested to know more about it, seeing as how it is so close to home for me.
James – From the transcript (and viewer feedback) Tony Abbott unfortunately gave further credance to the view that the term ‘catholic politician’ is an oxymoron.
Shame, he can be better…
This week, my parish priest’s sermon proposed: the ascendancy of the (lay) diaconate [four consecutive weeks as part of a theme]; the return to office of presently excluded married clergy; that BXVI is in error in relation to these matters. The PP has previously preached, to new Communicants, that they were to sit at the best table in town and partake of the best menu available to them. He has also eulogised a lay equivalence with the ordained clergy.
Circumstances, of public transport, dictate that I attend the Saturday evening Mass, rather than a ‘normal’ church, two times distant, three weeks out of four. I gain nothing from the local, five mile Mass, indeed I both attend and leave completely cold. Discussing this with my confessor [I did not name the parish, though he might have guessed], he suggested I treat it as a penance. He did express concern that I might avail myself of the edict, of the Bishops’ Conference, that to fullfil my Sunday Duty I may walk 500 yards down the road to my local CofE – not on your life.
Of course, the PP has the full support of his Bishop, but the Church has a dim future in this Diocese. I recall a sermon preached at the 25th. anniversary of a priest friend [packed church], the bishop, in question, preached a replacement of the ordained priesthood with the lay priesthood. This bishop was one-tme rector the Scot’s College Valladolid [Spain] – what hope therefore of properly prepared priests during his term as rector. His dioceses died the death!
There are FR. Kennedys, to a greater or lesser degree, throughout Mother Church – turkeys voting for Christmas! What are we pew fodder to do?
[….. And it is true he is still a priest. He will be forever. Priests remain priests even after death…. even in hell.]
Now there is an absolutely terrifying thought.
Terra, just because you are a Labor Party hack, with a brain as red as Lenin’s. I feel called to defend Tony Abbott on this occasion. Sure, he mumbled a few things but everyone knows he had a rather ‘loose’ past as a uni student. He is a good Catholic, trying to live a good Catholic life.
And he hasn’t ever voted the wrong way on matters of life. Unlike you favourite, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Tinkering
Liturgically
Corrupts
(Bigtime)
As a native son of toowoomba which is probably the most liberal diocese in the english speaking world, all i can do is pray that rome will act to save the church in qld.fr kennedy is not the biggest problem its the bishops of qld!!!!!, fr kennedy is a tragedy, a result of the modernist transformation of the clergy in qld, encouraged over the years by the modernist bishops there. He has the support and is representive of many of the qld clergy. Rome please act or catholicism will disappear, the faithul few up there are desperate, there are no orthodox diocesean priest under 60!!! Faithful catholic people who live in country towns and have modernist priests are being starved of the faith. People outside qld do not relaise how serious the situation is there. As a simple franciscan brother i ask the holy father how long??? Everytime i visit home to see my parents , people assk why is something being done. I no longer have the answers, it seems the faithful in qld have been abandoned by the shepherds of the church and it will go down in history as a most sorry episode in the history of the church in australia. Lord have mercy on us
[Please don’t SHOUT on the blog. I converted this text.]
TLCB…
Trite Liberal Catholic Balderdash?
Taliban Liberals Collectively Bargain?
Turkeys Leaving Catholic Building?
Maybe the bishop is waiting for him to formally pull a Dale Fushek and start his own gig at the TLCB before dousing the baptismal candle. Seriously, though, we need to pray for these folks. They are very much at risk of hell…
Prester,
If I may borrow a bit…
Trite Liturgics Corrupt Believers
“I don’t understand what’s wrong with him. Dos his vowel of obedience mean so little to him? [Yah… I guess it’s not consonant with his present belief operating system.]”
It would appear Father Kennedy predicates some of his words and deeds not on the letter of the Church’s law (nor its whole spirit), but on his own spirit. His bishop has spelled things out for him, even diagrammed it for him. Father Kennedy would do well to compose himself, and remember his subordinate clause, lest he incur punishment.
Just thinking about the idea of FSSP taking over… if this parish is emptied by the liberals, it would be a perfect laboratory for the traditionals. If we can fill it back up, then perhaps many of the fence-sitting bishops world wide would take notice.
“cannon [kaboom!] law decree”
I almost split my spleen laughing at this one. Kaboom!
“Fr Kennedy said he had no plans to retire and expected to still receive some financial support from the Catholic Church.”
This may seem harsh, but should the Church continue to support him? Cut him off and laicize (sp?)
him. Should we pay him to spread heresy??
It’s all about me, me, me, me! That’s Father Kennedy’s attitude. Tom
St. Francis of Assisi in Longmont is not schismatic. They are listed on the archdiocesan web site.
elmo, I didn’t think they were now; sorry I wasn’t clear. I would now amend my earlier post to say, “…else, and that was formerly schismatic” *note ‘schismatic’, not ‘in schism’*
However, they used to be called “Spirit of Christ” or “Spirit of Peace”, or something similar, and they refused to have a pastor, and they had services along with the Presbyterians at one of the Presbyterian churches in town. They now have their own building in which to have Mass, and Abp. Chaput has given them an orthodox pastor.
If this debate were ever to occur, I would hope the concluding sentence would include something to the effect of: “Priest Kennedy, now that you’ve convinced your congregants that you are in no manner separate from them, neither sacramentally, ontologically, nor in charism; that they can do everything you can, and that you have not been given a special gift from God in conferring the Eucharist – Tell us all, dear Reverend, why should they give you a home and keep paying your bills?!”
Tediously
Lame
Concepts
(Backed)