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."
The Archbishop is expected to make a definitive statement on the fate of the parish later this month. With D-day fast approaching, Father Kennedy is preparing for the worst.
"We don't know what the Archbishop will do," he said.
"But he's not very hopeful. He did say he would set in train a formal process. That doesn't necessarily mean that he will throw us out of here.
"Most of the people who come here are what we call 'recovering Catholics'.
"They've left their traditional parishes. If St Mary's closes down, they won't go back."
Father Kennedy said that at the end of the World War II, 50 per cent of Catholics went to Mass every Sunday, but "now, in this particular diocese, 13 per cent go to Mass every Sunday".
"If the church doesn't come to terms with the fact that the church has to operate within a liberal democracy, while it continues to act like a monarchy where all power is invested in the leadership of the Pope, then there's no hope, we'll be down to 3 per cent."
Asked what Jesus Christ would make of the controversy, Father Kennedy replied: "Well, Jesus always stood with the poor, the broken and the oppressed. Jesus was not a Christian. He was a Jew. And he certainly wasn't a Catholic and he didn't start the Catholic Church. He didn't start any church.
"Jesus railed against the religious authority of his day, the people who liked to be in the important places, with status and power and all that."
Father Kennedy described the Catholic church as being "caught in doctrine and dogma still".
"I understand where the Archbishop is coming from," he said. "We have a different concept of 'church'. Nevertheless, because he does what Rome says should be done, he expects me to do what he says should be done. I can't do that because I would be doing violence to my conscience; to my understanding of what the church is about."
Father Kennedy said leadership selection in the Catholic Church was "a very incestuous process and it starts from Rome", adding it would never change "until the people regain the right to elect their bishops".
Brisbane's indigenous community has rallied behind St Mary's.
For almost 30 years the church has been a refuge for South Brisbane's homeless, excluded and underprivileged, particularly through the work of Micah, a social justice group that works in collaboration with the St Mary's Catholic Community.
"This community has been a place where indigenous people could come and feel safe," Father Kennedy said.
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(Source: ccau)