Dissident Australian Priest Fr. Kennedy Will Not Leave the Building

This thing is, as they say, "turning ugly." Reports now indicate that there was a bomb threat made against the Archbishop's residence.

SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) - Father Peter Kennedy of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in South Brisbane, Australia has been fomenting open rebellion against his Bishop and turning the faithful against the clear teaching of the Catholic Church into which he was ordained.

He has ignored all directions by his Bishop to correct his errors in teaching and his infidelity to the proper celebration of the Sacred Mysteries. He has abdicated his duty to properly preside over the celebration of the Liturgy and participated in aberrant liturgical practices.

He does not wear vestments and has completely blurred the distinction between the community and the celebrant. He has collapsed the important distinction between the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood. He has formally presided over services for actively homosexual couples. He abdicates his call to preach.

In short, Fr. Kennedy is leading those who follow him outside of the Catholic faith.

This misguided cleric has questioned fundamental Catholic doctrine. He has developed his own new version of what passes for Liturgy in his former parish. He has promoted explicitly errant doctrines which deny the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ and the Virgin Birth of Our Lord.

Now, the day upon which he was ordered to leave his former parish has passed, Fr. Kennedy simply refuses to leave the building, literally.

Archbishop Bathersby, who has shown extraordinary pastoral solicitude toward his errant priest, now wants to call in a mediator. Last Saturday he told the Press: "The Church is fully entitled to have this decree obeyed and to have its ownership of the St Mary's church respected."

Among the strangest recent developments in this story is that among Fr. Kennedy's supporters are the "Raellians". They gathered outside of the Parish holding signs to support the disobedient cleric. The Raellians are a bizarre religious cult which proposes that alien gods intervened in human history.

Fr Kennedy presents himself as the victim and the hierarchy of the Church as the oppressor. He has attempted to spin the bizarre saga as some sort of clash between his teachings on social justice which he says threaten the establishment of the Church and some group of "vigilantes" who are out to get him. He insists that the Bishop's direction to him is an effort to enforce practices of the past.

In short, Fr. Peter Kennedy is moving toward schism and trying to take many of the faithful with him.

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This thing is, as they say, is "turning ugly." Reports now indicate that there was a bomb threat made against the Archbishop's residence. Police confirmed to the Australian media that they are investigating the incident and are taking it seriously. Additionally, Aboriginal activist Sam Watson has announced possible plans to build a tent embassy on the parish grounds.

The Priest is speaking regularly to the eager Press. He has made it clear that this bizarre saga is far from over as far as he is concerned: "The strategy basically is saying to the Archbishop that we are, as a community, not interested in entering into some sort of mediation if it's about installing Ken Howell, the dean, in some sort of peaceful manner...."

He continued: "We're only interested in mediation as a community if the Archbishop will look at the accusations that the vigilantes have made about us and test those in an ecclesiastical court . . . we feel there hasn't been due process here."

Stay tuned.

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