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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 →

Talk to Neocats; try to interest them in your customs, theology, etc. Approach individuals who look as though they might be prepared to listen. This usually excludes priests, but seminarians can be worth a try, as evidenced by the following story.

Paco, a young Spanish Neocat seminarian at St Vincent’s over a year ago, was befriended by several members of the community. They took the time to explain what we were about and why we were so opposed to the Neocatechumenate, and gave him books, like Albert Nolan’s Jesus Before Christianity, to read. Imagine our joy when Paco’s letter, … Continue reading →

Well folks, you will all be relieved that the innovative Neocat parish youth mass is a raging success. Watch out, Hillsong, here we come!

For my sins I attended the 6pm mass at St Vincent’s this evening. I counted a total of 14 people in the church, including the two incumbent Neocat “pastors” (No. 2 came in late, but was not publicly castigated for his sin as various members of the community have been), 3 seminarians (one of whom played the guitar and sort of sang), a Neocat couple from Leichhardt, one regular with her little daughter, a couple of … Continue reading →

Written by Brian Munro for Online Catholics

Weekend evening masses at St Vincent’s are usually attended by one or two dozen people. While parish priest Prindiville remains adamant that they are parish masses, the Neocat presence is oppressive and out of all proportion to the size of the congregation. In attendance there are typically two priests and a number of seminarians, who actively discourage any attempts by non-Neocats to contribute to the masses, by, for instance, talking over anyone who dares to offer a Prayer of the Faithful, and denying community members – even qualified Eucharistic Ministers – the right to distribute communion.

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