A SIX-month standoff between Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Bishop Michael
Malone and a Muswellbrook priest has gone to the Vatican after the
priest refused the bishop's request to resign over matters including his
"isolationist attitude".
Bishop Malone's decision in July last year
to investigate Father James Lunn's suitability as a priest under a
section of the church's canon law prompted outraged letters from his
community to Pope Benedict XVI.
"I am appalled at statements that
have been made about Father James Lunn and cannot understand how a
bishop who has spoken up so strongly about justice has produced such a
document," parish council spokeswoman Monica Brown said in a letter to
Bishop Malone in November after the bishop wrote to the priest
requesting him to resign.
The November letter followed an
investigation of complaints about the priest's intervention in a dispute
over bullying allegations at a parish school, which included an appeal
by him to the Catholic Education Office.
Father Lunn responded to Bishop Malone's letter to resign by appealing to his community in December about "what to do".
Mrs Brown said the priest received overwhelming support, including the
unanimous support of his parish council.
He engaged a canon lawyer to
appeal to the Pope and fight the bishop.
"Parishioners are very
distressed that we have been blessed with a good holy priest who
supports us when we need him, is extraordinary with the dying and has
the commitment to his people, but the bishop wants to get rid of him. We
don't understand," she said.
Father Lunn is priest of the
combined parish of St James Muswellbrook and St Thomas Aberdeen, which
was ministered by two priests until a lack of priests forced its merger.
The combined parish includes three aged care centres and a hospital.
"He is alone and the load is all on him," Mrs Brown said.
Bishop
Malone's controversial decision in September to sell a significant
portion of the diocese's aged care centres was "distressing" but was not
an issue in the dispute with Father Lunn, Mrs Brown said.
Father Lunn declined to comment.
Bishop Malone was unavailable to comment.
SIC: NH/AUS