Sunday, February 8, 2009

St Mary's and Law 12

St. Mary's South Brisbane were yesterday informed that their parish Priest, Fr. Peter Kennedy, has been excommunicated from the Catholic Church. His crime is engaging in pratices that the church felt were out of step with itself. This included allowing women to preach, abnormal liturgies at Communion (the Mass or Eucharist) and blessing homosexual couples.

This entry to the blog does not wish to make comment on people's personal views of these practices. I personally do not necessarily endorse Fr. Kennedy's position on a number of issues. But I wanted to hold up for readers something in which they could see that taking the line of true followship takes a great deal of intestinal fortitude. Anyone who thinks that this is an exaggeration needs to get their head read.

Kennedy has pretty much lost his line of income. He is likely to have lost use of his house and any other benefits the church has provided for him. All because he stood for what He believes Jesus has called him to be and do for his community.

No doubt there will be many in the St. Mary's 800+-strong community that will continue to support him. Those who do have been warned that they too will face excommunication. While to many Christians this may seem like not a big problem, to many Catholic's, this could very well mean schism within families and barriers between friends. Although having seen many of the St. Mary's supporters from other Catholic parishes who came to be with the St. Mary's community and Fr. Kennedy when he read the letter from Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby, methinks that they will still enjoy fellowship with many others.

I am personally stunned. As are many others. Mike O'Connor has written an excellent column in today's Courier Mail which opens up a myriad of questions concerning the Catholic Churches stance against the St. Mary's community and Fr. Kennedy.

But another part of me wonders why I am so surprised. In the book, I state quite clearly that if we follow Jesus in the way that he has called us to, we should look quite different to what we do. (See Law 7; the Law of Radical Discipleship).

But I want to say that the thing that has been so wonderful to see in all of this is Fr. Kennedy. He is still smiling. He is still encouraging those he leads as Priest. He is asking his congregation to stay faithful. He is still asking the Catholic church to have a 'heart-to-heart' with the community. He is still being like Jesus would in a moment when no one would blame him for getting feisty and lashing out.

The Law of Denial (Law 12) states that a season of denying self for the greater good is always something that a true follower will have to face. Fr. Peter Kennedy allows us to see this followship in immediate action. While Jesus still blazed the trail in terms of sacrifice for the greater good, for a modern day example of followship in action, you couldn't ask for a better role model than Fr. Kennedy.

Our prayers are with Fr. Kennedy and our brothers and sisters in the congregation and community of St. Mary's.