Church Mouse Journal
More morsels from St Vincent's Redfern
Monday, 6 June 2005
Priests call in police
Catholic priests in Redfern have called in the police in an attempt to quell disruptions to their services, only days after the funeral of the suburb's much-loved priest, Father Ted Kennedy.
Yesterday, parishioners were handed a letter from Bishop Anthony Fisher, the Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney; warning them he had directed the parish priests to seek police help in the event of any further disruptions.
Having to resort to police intervention was very disappointing, Bishop Fisher said.
"For a small inner city parish it's a very distressing step to have to take but I wouldn't imagine it's unprecedented, " he said.
"It is rare, very sad and very disturbing for most of the parishioners."
The policy was put into force after yesterday's morning service, when Father Gerry Prendiville spoke with police and passed on the bishop's letter.
The conflict began in 2003 when Father 'Ted stepped down. The first priest who replaced him withdrew from the parish: the second, Father Prendiville, a member of the conservative grouping, Neocatechumenal Way, has sought to take the church in a new direction.
The current conflict centres on a small wooden table, topped by a red, black and gold wooden cross. Bishop Fisher said he had been told the table had been used as an "additional altar" by disgruntled parishioners who he acknowledged remained profoundly upset over Father Kennedy's death last month.
"They have been pretending to say Mass at the same time as the priest is saying Mass. It is a very divisive thing to do.
"They have also been calling out loudly through the homily and prayers," he said.
However, Peter Manning, a parishioner and friend of Father Kennedy; said the situation was most extraordinary.
While his friend had opened the church up to the lives of the community it served, experiencing their suffering and poverty, the "current lot want to turn them into God-fearing Catholics", Mr Manning said.
The table, which stands only 50 centimetres high, had been smashed inside the church a week ago, Mr Manning said, but was returned, bandaged, to a position beside the altar yesterday. The parishioners who returned the table did not wish to speak to the Herald yesterday.
"It seems pathetic that such a symbolic item should be bringing the wrath of the Sydney Diocese . down on a small church," Mr Manning said.
Andrew Stevenson
Sydney Morning Herald Mon Jun 6 2005 P3
See also Catholic News article: Police involved in subduing recalcitrant parishioners
Posted by Church Mouse, 8:40 AM
4 Comments:
From: Elisabeth Burke
Date: Mon Jun 6, 2005 10:51 am
Subject: (No subject)
re: Priests call in Police, p3 SMH
I was saddened to read such ill informed and mischievous comments by Auxiliary Bishop Fisher. He never consulted with the community; his allegation of parallel masses is totally untrue. Further, your journalist failed to inform the public that the smashed item of furniture was done by the violent kickings of Fr Denis Sudla wearing his clerical vestments in front of the congregation. The fact that priests called in police could infer that the parishioners were destructive. The real story is one of violent behaviours,
unacceptable in civil society, being whitewashed behind ecclesiastical doors; episcopal untruths from a body that prides itself on defending high moral order; and the cowardly actions (calling in police on trumped up allegations) of men with no capacity to dialogue.
Elisabeth Burke
I have been a member of the St Vincent's community for over 30 years.
Date: Mon Jun 6, 2005 10:51 am
Subject: (No subject)
re: Priests call in Police, p3 SMH
I was saddened to read such ill informed and mischievous comments by Auxiliary Bishop Fisher. He never consulted with the community; his allegation of parallel masses is totally untrue. Further, your journalist failed to inform the public that the smashed item of furniture was done by the violent kickings of Fr Denis Sudla wearing his clerical vestments in front of the congregation. The fact that priests called in police could infer that the parishioners were destructive. The real story is one of violent behaviours,
unacceptable in civil society, being whitewashed behind ecclesiastical doors; episcopal untruths from a body that prides itself on defending high moral order; and the cowardly actions (calling in police on trumped up allegations) of men with no capacity to dialogue.
Elisabeth Burke
I have been a member of the St Vincent's community for over 30 years.
From: Len De Lorenzo
Sent: Monday, 6 June 2005 11:01 AM
To: 'letters@smh.com.au'
Subject: Priests call in police, by Andrew Stevenson
The demonisation of Ted Kennedy’s followers at St Vincent’s Redfern continues, and all the while the Church hierarchy consistently ignores our pleas to engage in dialogue, to hear our side of the story.
George Pell is on the record saying: "I appointed Father Peter Carroll [Prindiville’s predecessor], a gentle man, and these people ran him out of the parish.” And "What they need is gospel preached to them. What the locals need is some sort of personal sense of identity or sense of integration that'll help get their life together. And for the long run the Neocatechumenal people are better equipped to do that than most because if you send in an isolated individual priest there, with no lay support - he would've just been crucified too"
Not long after his appointment to Redfern, Prindiville was reported in September 2003 asking "… that they consume communion in front of me because I became aware people were going down the back of the church with the Eucharist and I don't know what goes on down there".
Now we are screamed at and abused in the church by Neocatechumenal priests and their supporters, they are calling in the police, and Anthony Fisher is making claims that we are “pretending to say Mass at the same time as the priest”. What idiocy informs this twaddle?
Or perhaps I should be asking what next – burning at the stake?
Len De Lorenzo
St Vincent’s Community member
Sent: Monday, 6 June 2005 11:01 AM
To: 'letters@smh.com.au'
Subject: Priests call in police, by Andrew Stevenson
The demonisation of Ted Kennedy’s followers at St Vincent’s Redfern continues, and all the while the Church hierarchy consistently ignores our pleas to engage in dialogue, to hear our side of the story.
George Pell is on the record saying: "I appointed Father Peter Carroll [Prindiville’s predecessor], a gentle man, and these people ran him out of the parish.” And "What they need is gospel preached to them. What the locals need is some sort of personal sense of identity or sense of integration that'll help get their life together. And for the long run the Neocatechumenal people are better equipped to do that than most because if you send in an isolated individual priest there, with no lay support - he would've just been crucified too"
Not long after his appointment to Redfern, Prindiville was reported in September 2003 asking "… that they consume communion in front of me because I became aware people were going down the back of the church with the Eucharist and I don't know what goes on down there".
Now we are screamed at and abused in the church by Neocatechumenal priests and their supporters, they are calling in the police, and Anthony Fisher is making claims that we are “pretending to say Mass at the same time as the priest”. What idiocy informs this twaddle?
Or perhaps I should be asking what next – burning at the stake?
Len De Lorenzo
St Vincent’s Community member
From: Peter Griffin
To: letters@smh.com.au
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 11:44 AM
Subject: St Vincents Redfern
To the Editor,
It is a sad reflection on the Church that a Bishop, who has never visited, or even responded to a letter of appeal from his flock, should think that the police have any place in quelling liturgical unrest. Whilst the details of incidents at St Vincents need to be addressed in a bipartisan, open way, the very fact that a prelate would abdicate in favour of the civil constabulary, is, to use Bishop Fisher's own words "very disappointing" indeed.
Peter Griffin.
To: letters@smh.com.au
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 11:44 AM
Subject: St Vincents Redfern
To the Editor,
It is a sad reflection on the Church that a Bishop, who has never visited, or even responded to a letter of appeal from his flock, should think that the police have any place in quelling liturgical unrest. Whilst the details of incidents at St Vincents need to be addressed in a bipartisan, open way, the very fact that a prelate would abdicate in favour of the civil constabulary, is, to use Bishop Fisher's own words "very disappointing" indeed.
Peter Griffin.
From: John Hill
To: letters@smh.com.au
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 11:32 AM
Subject: Letters to the Editor - 6th June 2005
I was at mass last Sunday at St. Vincent's, Redfern (SMH, 5 June 2005, page 3) where I had been asked by the community to speak on the scriptural readings for the mass. The small bandaged table placed in front of the altar has always been seen as a symbol of Aboriginal spirituality. In no way is it seen as a second altar and the parishioners have never, never pretended to participate in anything other than the mass being said at the altar. It is sad to think that an ill-informed bishop can make a judgment without consulting the parishioners who were present at the time the priest kicked the small table to pieces and threw away the Aboriginal cross. While it is indeed true that we are deeply mourning the death of Fr. Ted Kennedy, what has been happening at St. Vincent's has been going on since the Cardinal appointed the neocathecumenate clergy to run the parish.
John E. Hill