Archbishop evicts Australian Catholic priest from church because he blessed gay couples.

Rebel priest, Father Peter Kennedy has agreed to hold his final mass at Brisbane’s St Mary’s church on April 19 then return the church to the Brisbane Archdiocese after mediation ended a nearly two month stand off over control of the St Mary’s church facilities Thursday.

In February, Archbishop John Bathersby issued “decree of removal” against Father Kennedy saying that the priest was being fired over his allowing women to preach the homily, as well as Kennedy’s blessing of same sex unions.

Then the Archbishop sent a new administrator to get the keys to St Mary’s Church in South Brisbane.

Father Peter Kennedy

But, Father Peter Kennedy, a priest for 44 years including 28 at St Mary’s,rejected the Archbishop’s claim that St Mary’s was operating outside the Church and with the backing of the St Mary’s Church council, refused to hand them over, beginning a stand off between the parish and the Archdiocese, that eventually lead to outside secular arbitration of the dispute overseen by former a Australian High Court judge.

The St Mary’s Church council contended the church belonged to its member and the Archdiocese threatened legal action to regain control of the building with the hard lined Archbishop saying that the police would be brought in to forcibly remove Kennedy if necessary.

Complicating matters even further, the St Mary’s community and Father Kennedy had a close relationship with the original indigenous owners of the land on which St Mary’s is built and the socially active church has a large Aboriginal membership. The parish community signed a treaty with them last year and many thought that native title should be invoked over the deputed church property. Brisbane’s indigenous community at one point set up a tent embassy at St Mary’s, claiming the treaty between them and the church gives shared custody of the land and that Father Kennedy’s liberal practices should stay.

In the deal brokered between the St Mary’s Council and the Archdiocese, Easter liturgies, mass and other church celebrations will continue as they are up to April 19. Then the church council will hand over the property to the Archdiocese and Kennedy will leave.

Community members, who reluctantly participated in the negotiations to avoid a possible violent confrontation and a long legal battle over the church, said they were devastated by the outcome and it appears the rift between Father Kennedy, the St Mary’s Community and church leaders has likely led to nearly 1000 less tithe paying member for the Archdiocese of Brisbane.

Archbishop John Bathersby

Speaking at St Mary’s on Sunday, Kennedy said according to the agreement negotiated on Thursday, he was still a priest and would lead a congregation, even if he would no longer be permitted to do so at St Mary’s. Then he said “On the second Sunday after Easter we will gather as a community here and we will walk down to the TLC (Trades and Labor Council) Building.”

Father Kennedy said he expected many of his followers to come with him. “I think 95 per cent of the people we have now will come to the new place,” he said.

When Catholic Archbishop John Bathersby originally fired the renegade priest from his position at St Mary’s he threatened him with excommunication on the grounds of “causing harm to ecclesiastical communion.”

In a letter sent last year to Father Kennedy and the St. Mary’s parishioners, Archbishop Bathersby said, “I cannot stop you from doing so. (Forming a new church) However those who follow you should realize they will not be in communion with the Roman Catholic Church or the Archdiocese of Brisbane.”

Kennedy said he was not afraid of being excommunicated, because the move would be “just words”. “They can’t burn you at the stake these days,” he said. “We live, thank God, in a liberal-democratic society. Kennedy also said the Archbishop would not be able to stop him from forming another congregation of the Catholic Church.

The situation at St Marys had caused a considerable backlash in the larger Australian Catholic community and many say that Archdiocese “Gestapo like” tactics in forcing Kennedy to leave St. Mary’s will only serve to fracture the Catholic Church in Australia even further.

However, Kennedy predicted the Catholic Church is “pragmatic enough” to change radically, including allowing women to become leaders and the acceptance of gays one day. “The Church when it is facing annihilation can turn itself around,” he said.

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