Hope for St Vincent’s?

For eight years the job definition for parish priest of St Vincent’s Redfern could well have included essentials such as:

  • Drive away Ted Kennedy’s supporters;
  • Drive away the Aborigines; deny that they come to this church;
  • Don’t engage with non-Neocat parishioners; don’t listen to them; don’t talk to them if it can be avoided; Keep them in the dark regarding parish matters;
  • Ignore and/or deny their reasonable requests;
  • Tell them they aren’t Catholics; that they are not welcome in this church; attack them from the pulpit;
  • Keep looking at the time when in their presence; rush out of church at the end of Sunday Mass;
  • Make it hard for them to bury their dead;
  • Help them understand what it means to be marginalised;
  • Do these things with the unconditional support of your archbishop.

Did someone forget to tell Melvin Llabanes?

Since Fr Melvin celebrated his first Sunday Mass as pp at St Vincent’s a month ago (18 September), none of these things have happened.

He is shaping up to be the first of the post-Kennedy parish priests to bring some hope of sanity, humanity and Christianity back to the role.


Melvin – Griffo’s funeral

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