Dissident Australian Catholic Priest, Fr. Peter Kennedy, Apostasizes

When we first reported on this sad story we asked our readers from around the globe to pray for this errant and disobedient priest and all who were being deceived by his teaching of blatant error. Now, we sadly ask our readers to pray that he repent and turn from his apostacy.

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P>SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) - In February of 2009 I wrote an article on a sad story involving dissident Australian priest Fr Peter Kennedy. At the time Fr. Kennedy was the pastor of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in South Brisbane, Australia. He was fomenting open rebellion against his Bishop and turning the faithful against the clear teaching of the Catholic Church into which he was ordained.

He ignored all directions by his Bishop to correct his errors in teaching and his infidelity to the proper celebration of the Sacred Mysteries. He abdicated his duty to properly preside over the celebration of the Liturgy and participated in aberrant liturgical practices. For example, he did not wear vestments and completely blurred the distinction between the community and the celebrant.

He intentionally collapsed the important distinction between the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood. In other words, he became a protestant. He also formally presided over services for actively homosexual couples. He abdicated his call to preach by turning the function over to not only people who were not ordained, but people who did not believe or profess what the Catholic Church teaches.

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

Then, on the day upon which he was ordered to leave his former parish, Fr. Kennedy simply refused to leave the building, literally. Archbishop Bathersby, who had shown extraordinary pastoral solicitude toward his errant priest, called in a mediator. 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 aspects of the story was that among Fr. Kennedy's supporters were 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 presented himself as the victim and the hierarchy of the Church as the oppressor. He attempted to spin the bizarre saga as some sort of clash between his teachings on social justice which he said threatened the "establishment" of the Church and what he thought were a group of "vigilantes" out to get him.

He insisted that the Bishop's directions to him were an effort to enforce practices of "the past". Eventually, the errant and rebellious priest left the building. Sadly, he led too many of the faithful astray with him. In short, Fr. Peter Kennedy promoted a schism and took some of the faithful with him into a community in exile, a heretical sect which left the full communion and safe harbor of the Catholic Church.

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Now, we must report that the sad story continues to get worse. The Sydney Morning Herald, in its July 27, 2011 issue, will carry a story written by Miranda Forster entitled Priest still believes, but not in Jesus

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"Sacked Catholic priest Peter Kennedy says he hasn't given up on God and prayer, but no longer believes in Jesus. Father Kennedy, dismissed by the church for unorthodox practices, says he now considers Jesus "a fable". The rebel priest made headlines in 2009 when he formed a congregation in exile.

"He was earlier sacked by the church for unorthodox practices such as allowing women to preach the homily and blessing same-sex relationships.Fr Kennedy says he still believes in God, just not a God who intervenes in the affairs of humans.

"It's true I've given up on that sort of a God, that sort of a 'being' that sits up there in heaven somewhere and intervenes in human affairs," he told AAP on Wednesday.

"If you believe in a God that intervenes into human history why didn't God intervene in the massacre in Norway? Whatever God is, God is not that sort of God, obviously. "That's what I'm trying to say."

Fr Kennedy said he still believed in prayer, but not asking things of God."For me prayer is just standing in wonder and awe at the mystery of life, the beauty of life, the goodness of people."
Praying in church was not about talking directly to God, he said.

"It (public prayer) is about informing the community of people within the community and outside the community who are in need, it's not about informing God.God already knows all that, that's God."

But he said he had not believed in Jesus for some time, calling the son of God a "fable" and a "metaphor".
"There is no corroborating evidence for the existence of a person called Jesus," he said."The Gospels must not ever be taken literally. Scripture scholars tell us that.

"There's been 'dying, rising God-men' around for centuries before Christianity. All Christianity did was to take on those pagan, then Jewish, mysteries.He's a parable, he's a metaphor in a sense."

Fr Kennedy is still highly critical of the Catholic Church, but says he does not hold a grudge against retiring Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby."John Bathersby is a very decent human being ... his theology and my theology are different," he said.

"I did publicly talk about that I held no grudges against John whatsoever.I mean in the beginning I was angry because of what I perceived as an injustice to the community. Now he doesn't see it that way and that's fine.

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"But with our new bishop the people will not be consulted ... even though they (the Church) said yesterday that the laity will be consulted, they won't be consulted.

"I mean two or three good Catholics might be consulted but it means nothing.We live in a very clerical church and the people have no say in the election of their bishops. And they have no say in the dismissal of their bishops."

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When we first reported on this sad story we asked our readers from around the globe to pray for this errant and disobedient priest and all who were being deceived by his teaching of blatant error. Now, we sadly ask our readers to pray that he repent and turn from his apostacy.

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