Rebel priest defies sacking

A REBEL Catholic priest in Australia sacked for blessing gay couples and allowing women to preach has vowed to defy his archbishop and lead mass tomorrow.

Fr Peter Kennedy of St Mary’s parish in the Australian city of Brisbane said he expected a “packed church” to show support against his dismissal this week by Archbishop John Bathersby.

“I think he’s sacked me unjustly and the community agrees so I’m standing strong and I don’t think he can do anything about that,” said Kennedy. “I don’t know what will happen but we will just continue with our liturgy as we normally have it,” he said from the inner-city church where he has preached for 28 years.

Kennedy, 71, agreed he had breached church rules, but strongly defended his actions as in line with the Vatican’s call for people to take full and active participation in the liturgy.

“We’ve taken that seriously and we’ve welcomed women to preach at our Mass and women to begin the liturgy,” he said, describing the Catholic Church as “the biggest boys’ club in the world”.

Kennedy said he had blessed about 10 gay and lesbian unions during his time at St Mary’s.

“We haven’t married them but we’ve conducted a ceremony of blessing,” he said. “That’s been inclusive of gay and lesbian people but the church is exclusive of gay and lesbian people.”

Kennedy said the community had shown strong support for his position, with the weekly collection having shot up from a normal $2,100 (€1,065) to $5,400 last week.

Archbishop Bathersby said he had dismissed Kennedy as administrator of St Mary’s after the priest ignored his warnings, and urged the local community to support the appointment of a new priest “on a peaceful basis”.