Author Archives: cmadmin

Edward Phillip Kennedy, Catholic priest, 1931-2005

Father Edward (Ted) Kennedy, who has died at 74 after a long illness, was parish priest of Redfern for more than 30 years. In that time he became a national authority on the plight of Aborigines, an authority that came not from libraries but from sharing their hazardous lives.

Ted Kennedy came to Redfern almost by chance. In the heady years after Vatican II (1962-65) he belonged to a movement of priests eager to try out new styles of ministry. In particular, they wanted to displace the feudal structure of parishes, whereby pastors … Continue reading →

Priest, activist and friend of Sydney’s largely Aboriginal Redfern Catholic community, Fr Ted Kennedy, died in Concord Hospital early yesterday. 74 year old Fr Kennedy had been severely debilitated by a stroke in the late 1990s, and retired in 2002.

Although he chose to discontinue Fr Kennedy’s style of ministry in Redfern’s St Vincent’s Parish, Cardinal George Pell yesterday paid tribute to one of his best known priests.

“Fr Ted Kennedy was a good and courageous priest who inspired many people,” he said. “He was a man of strong convictions who worked hard … Continue reading →

If the Church is to be a sign of the kingdom, it must give the respect due to princes to the outcasts of the world. Never again must we allow a rhetoric of idealism, a policy of compromise, but the end result being `business as usual’. – Fr Ted Kennedy, who died yesterday, from a 1975 letter to the Archbishop of Sydney.

Legendary priest and friend to Aboriginal people, Fr Ted Kennedy, has died in Sydney’s Concord Hospital, aged 74.

To former Catholic priest Patrick Dodson, Fr Kennedy is ‘great … Continue reading →

Part of the transcript of this weeks ABC Radio Religion Report:

David Rutledge: Finally, on The Religion Report this week, we mark the passing of one of the best-loved and most courageous figures in the Australian Catholic church.

Ted Kennedy: I want to make the confession that within the Catholic community in Australia, there has been a deep, dark hole for a long time now, which amounts to a lack of genuine spirituality. Religion can become the possession of an elitist group whose power reinforces the power of all the other institutional forces in society. It’s language then becomes spiritually … Continue reading →

Word has come that a great man has gone to God.

Father Ted Kennedy is at last at rest. He died in the small hours of today in a cold, white Concord Hospital bed far from the Aboriginal people of Redfern he served so well. But Ted will always be in their thoughts. They have lost their sweetest singer, their great champion, a Jesus-figure who stood beside them in all their joys and sorrows, deaths in custody, police raids, drug problems, lousy health and poverty of a kind known only to our indigenous people.

All my troubles, Lord, soon be … Continue reading →

ABC Online PM http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1370868.htm

Reporter: David Mark

MARK COLVIN: An outspoken Catholic priest who worked with the Aboriginal community in inner Sydney, Father Ted Kennedy, has died after a series of strokes.Father Ted Kennedy worked in the St Vincent’s Parish in the often-troubled suburb of Redfern from the 1970s.David Mark’s report begins with Father Ted’s sister, Marnie. MARNIE KENNEDY: He had this clear view of… that human beings are made for fullness of life. So he railed against anything that deprived people of their real calling to be fully human. DAVID MARK: Father Ted Kennedy’s … Continue reading →

“Fr Ted Kennedy was a good and courageous priest who inspired many people. He was a man of strong convictions who worked hard to help those on the margins. He will be sadly missed by his friends and former parishioners”

Source: http://cathnews.com/news/505/doc/18sydney.html

ABORIGINAL activist and Catholic priest Father Ted Kennedy has died in Sydney aged 74, a friend said today.

A resident of inner-city Sydney for all his life, Fr Kennedy made his mark as Catholic parish priest to the Aboriginal community in Redfern. He died at Concord Hospital yesterday, former Catholic priest and longtime friend Patrick Dodson said.

“It’s a sad, sad, sad loss,” Mr Dodson told the website Online Catholics. “He managed to incorporate the best of Catholicism into his personal life, which was evident in the way he related to the poor, the outcast and the downtrodden. … Continue reading →

“I have sent this letter to Fr Gerry Prindville and I am placing a copy on Church Mouse as the abusive behaviour of the Neocatechuminate priests and their community is vicious, destructive and out of control. It violates the sanctity of our church.”

9 May 2005

Dear Gerry,

Last Sunday I arrived late into Sydney and decided to attend the evening parish mass.

I did nothing at the mass to incite or provoke the unwarranted, aggressive and abusive behaviour towards me by you and the Neocat clergy present.

I am of the understanding that it is a tradition in the … Continue reading →

The withholding of financial contributions to the Church is an effective means for the faithful to register disapproval with the hierarchy. A consistently empty Sunday collection plate makes a statement that is hard to ignore.

In the USA, some reform groups have been urging Catholics to withhold contributions until the Church gets tough with sexual abusers in the priesthood and opens up its files for a full accounting of four decades of clerical abuse. The phenomenon has become quite ecumenical, with Episcopal Church officials recently announcing a $3 million shortfall in the church’s 2004 budget, … Continue reading →