Author Archives: Church Mouse

Open Letter to the Parish Priest

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Thursday, 10 June 2004

Fr. Gerry Prindiville,
Parish Priest,
St. Vincent’s Catholic Church, Redfern

Dear Fr. Gerry,

Re: Open Letter re St Vincent’s Church Buildings and Furnishings

A few weeks before Easter, you approved the installation of two carpets within the Church, the larger square spreading under the Altar, the smaller "runner" going up under the Magisterial Chair-on-a-Podium/Platform, also installed since your arrival. While no announcement was made about these carpets, on request you mentioned to some of the community that they "had been a gift". Perhaps the gift was meant as a sign of paying respect to … Continue reading →

Redfern pleas for intervention

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Online Catholics Issue 3, 9 June 2004

A plea for intervention by Cardinal Pell in the increasingly fraught situation in the Aboriginal parish of St Vincent’s, Redfern, was apparently withheld from him for two months.

Br Michael Gravener, a St John of God Brother and a social worker at the Block, wrote to the Cardinal in April. Br Gravener believes that Aboriginal people are being denied basic justice by a model of ministry offered by the Diocesan Neo-Catechumenate priests. "There is a failure to acknowledge Aboriginal spirituality by our current parish priests, and … Continue reading →

Between the Rock and a Hard Place: Being Catholic Today

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Book review

Some years ago, Paul Collins went bushwalking in the remote NW corner of Tasmania known as the Tarkine. Somehow the silent, numinous wilderness of the Tarkine spoke to him and effected an unmistakable expansion of soul – a conversion experience if ever there was one. Later he wrote a short record of this encounter, calling it sacramental: "I had come in contact with something disturbing, living and profound, and I knew that somehow the natural world had now become the primary sacramental symbol for me of a a transforming divine presence.’

Complex Redfern Challenge

By | | Neocriticism
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I am an Australian priest of the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam, Micronesia. I had already read in the Australian press about what Peter Maher described as the "cultural shenanigans at Redfern with the arrival of the Neocatechumenal Way priests" and so, while I was in Sydney last year, attended Mass at St. Vincent’s one Sunday morning.

My recollections were not, however, about any cultural insensitivity on the part of the priest and the deacon who assisted at the liturgy, but more because it was one of the few parishes I encountered where everyone seemed to participate. It … Continue reading →

Bishops fail to respect Aboriginal culture, spirituality

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Online Catholics Issue 1, 26 May 2004

Australian Bishops have failed to show regard for Aboriginal people by refusing a request to draft Guidelines for Clergy who work with indigenous Australians, according to Sr Marnie Kennedy, rscj.

Marnie Kennedy is the sister of the now ailing Fr Ted Kennedy, who was parish priest at St Vincent’s Catholic Church in Redfern, Sydney, for 30 years. Her statement comes as a response to the decision by the recent Bishops’ Conference to turn down a request from that parish, which was directed to the Secretary of the … Continue reading →

San Francisco supporter

By | | Morsels
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The Church Mouse received this email today:

Hello St. Vincent’s, Redfern Parishioners:

I have acquired a copy of Mum Shirl an autobiography with the assistance of Bobbi Sykes.

Coming from a family that has lived in San Francisco since 1870, Mum Shirl is the only person I’ve ever heard of who when visiting San Francisco went to visit San Quentin Prison.

Hold onto St. Vincent’s parish. If you keep your church, you can keep a place of future pilgrimages of future conferences on Mum Shirl’s path of Justice.

Keep the Faith.

Kathy H.

Many thanks, Kathy.

The Challenge of Redfern

By | | Morsels
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The challenge of Redfern would fill a book. The historical situation is that Fr Ted Kennedy sided with the Redfern Aborigines around Mum Shirl and became a close collaborator in her work. His genius was to privilege the excluded in such a way that they became friends. His deep and profound love of the Aborigines in Redfern and all their relatives around Australia was expressed in his extraordinary memory of names and places and where those names belonged. He could identify where each family was based geographically and knew members of visiting Aborigines’ families. This practical knowledge was matched with … Continue reading →

Practical theology

By | | Morsels
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Tom, a Redfern original (in most senses of the word), came from Mittagong for Mass today. He totally eclipsed Fr D’s enervated Neocat homily with an impassioned reflection on the practical theology of embracing the outcast that Ted Kennedy practiced and instilled in others. He was thanked with a hearty round of applause.

After Mass he urged the congregation to follow the example of Jesus and Ted and speak out and be critical of those who would lead us down the wrong road.

PS The writing was back on the wall after Mass.