{"id":1823,"date":"2005-05-28T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-28T00:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/church-mouse.lanuera.com\/IV\/?p=1823"},"modified":"2005-05-28T10:39:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-28T00:39:00","slug":"fr-ted-a-most-extraordinary-man-with-passion-for-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/?p=1823","title":{"rendered":"Fr Ted, a \u2018most extraordinary\u2019 man with passion for the poor"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fr Ted Kennedy\u2019s strongest message was \u201chis understanding of the primacy of the poor in Jesus\u2019 teachings\u201d, says his sister, Sr Marnie Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Fr Ted, parish priest of St Vincent\u2019s, Redfern, for more than 30 years and dear friend of the country\u2019s indigenous people, has died after a long illness. He was 74.<\/p>\n

Tributes and letters have poured in to honour a champion of the poor and marginalised and defender of the indigenous people; a man who read and thought deeply and lived what he preached.<\/p>\n

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, said that Fr Ted was a \u201cgood and courageous priest who inspired many people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a man of strong convictions who worked hard to help those on the margins,\u201d he said. \u201cHe will be sadly missed by his friends and former parishioners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sr Marnie, a Sister of the Sacred Heart and a member of the Redfern parish community since the 70s, says her brother was a passionate advocate for justice and had a great gift for preaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe offered a Christ who was so attractive and yet so strong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe offered a wonderful theology of the primacy of the poor, which was for everyone, not just a few. He believed that was the essence of the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr Edmund Campion told The Catholic Weekly that Fr Ted \u201cis one of the glories of the Sydney priesthood whose name will shine in our story for many years to come\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was someone who took the Gospel seriously and lived it thoroughly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fr Ted wrote in a letter to the Archbishop of Sydney in 1975 (Cardinal James Freeman) explaining his vision for his community at Redfern.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoverty of spirit is the prerequisite of all Christian life,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd there is no poverty of spirit without a sharing of the spirit of poor people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt involves feeling and touching the pulse of their lives, and sharing the weight of their anguish and putting our shoulder alongside theirs, and fighting with them for their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ted Kennedy was raised in Sydney. He went to Christian Brothers High School at Lewisham before entering the Manly seminary. He was for some years a chaplain at Sydney University.<\/p>\n

Sr Marnie says he was inspired by the reforms of Vatican II.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a vision of a team ministry fanning out into areas like factories and other places, in an attempt to offer a yeast for a new society,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Freeman offered him Redfern parish in which to establish his team ministry, and he moved into the presbytery in 1971 with two other priests, Frs John Butcher and Fergus Breslan.<\/p>\n

So began Fr Ted\u2019s friendship with the many indigenous people who lived in, or passed through, his parish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first night or so he opened the doors of the presbytery and he took in about 100 to sleep there,\u201d says Sr Marnie. \u201cTed slept in the back of the sacristy on a mattress for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came Shirley Smith (\u2018Mum Shirl\u2019), who teamed up with Fr Ted to tend to the community, to visit jails and help conduct hundreds of funerals.<\/p>\n

They were instrumental in the establishment of the Aboriginal Medical Service, Aboriginal Hostels and the Aboriginal Legal Service.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018stolen generation\u2019 has been in currency for about 10 years. Fr Ted learnt of it much earlier when, in the 1970s, indigenous people with their newly acquired citizenship left the missions and came to Sydney to find their families.<\/p>\n

He helped them. \u201cHe travelled the country trying to find connections,\u201d says Sr Marnie. \u201cHe could say to people \u2018I\u2019ve met your uncle, I\u2019ve met your cousin\u2019 in some place in the far west.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr Ted became renowned as an advocate for and friend of indigenous people, as well as a critic of those he saw as keeping their distance from the poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sometimes fired off a lot of Irish passion about justice, but he did not have a big ego,\u201d says Sr Marnie.<\/p>\n

Fr Ted\u2019s vision of reconciliation was not a political, or even a religious one, but was simply a vision of friendship. And he led by example.<\/p>\n

He was always wary of encouraging a sense of paternalism but, rather, strived to encourage self-determination, says Sr Marnie.<\/p>\n

Some of the young people he befriended and encouraged to study went on to become leaders in society, including Australia\u2019s only indigenous judge, the late Bob Bellear.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir love for him was just extraordinary,\u201d says Sr Marnie. \u201cThey were given the sense that he had them as their first priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redfern parishioner Peter Griffin says that Fr Ted was a \u201cmost extraordinary\u201d man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was terribly orthodox, with liturgies for example, but very unconventional, too,\u201d he said. \u201cHe had a penetrating intelligence. He was a very strong man and a tremendous friend in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr Ted was suffering the effects of a stroke in 2000 when his book Who is Worthy? was published.<\/p>\n

In 2001 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the Aboriginal community.<\/p>\n

Fr Ted retired as parish priest in 2002.<\/p>\n

He celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest in 2003.
\n
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

Source: The Catholic Weekly, 29 May 2005<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr Ted Kennedy\u2019s strongest message was \u201chis understanding of the primacy of the poor in Jesus\u2019 teachings\u201d, says his sister, Sr Marnie Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Fr Ted, parish priest of St Vincent\u2019s, Redfern, for more than 30 years and dear friend of the country\u2019s indigenous people, has died after a long illness. He was 74.<\/p>\n

Tributes and letters have poured in to honour a champion of the poor and marginalised and defender of the indigenous people; a man who read and thought deeply and lived what he preached.<\/p>\n

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, said that Fr Ted was a \u201cgood … Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church-mouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}