Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby has written to the administrator of St Mary's in South Brisbane threatening to start "a formal process" to address the situation if changes are not made by December 1. The Australian reports the parish looks set to be excommunicated after the local priest, Fr Peter Kennedy, said yesterday he would not change his ways despite being warned to do so by Church authorities.
The archbishop wrote to the parish in September drawing attention to practices that placed St Mary's "not in communion with the Catholic Church", and giving them until the end of the year to respond.
But in a second letter last week, Archbishop Bathersby said several undertakings had not been honoured and that "games are still being played, as they were in the past."
"I am prepared to wait until December 1, but no longer. After that I will begin a formal process to address the situation," he said.
But Fr Kennedy indicated yesterday that the local people would not be changing their practices.
He said St Mary's had been "white-anted" by people who were not regular members of the church.
"There are vigilantes who've come into our church and written to Rome, and Rome has put pressure on John Bathersby. Bullies never have enough of bullying, and the Vatican is a bully," he said.
"Many communities are not sticking precisely to the rules of liturgy. Our problem is that we are a public community. The archbishop has known what we've been doing for all these years. But his model of governance is hierarchical, and that's his problem, the Church's governance is hierarchical."
Fr Kennedy, 71, said he was making a stand on behalf of what he called "recovering Catholics".
"They walked away from the Church because they can no longer abide this institution which is so oppressive of women, of gay and lesbian people.
"We are one Church community that is prepared to say enough is enough."
According to the ABC, Archbishop Bathersby's demands include an end to commitment ceremonies at St Mary's for gay and lesbian couples and the use of non-conventional terms during baptisms.He insists the priests 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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: CTHN)