Sacked Rebel Priest Appeals to Vatican, Andrew Wight, The Brisbane Times, March 20, 2009

Sacked Rebel Priest Appeals to Vatican

By Andrew Wight
The Brisbane Times
March 20, 2009

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/sacked-rebel-priest-appeals-to-vatican/2009/03/20/1237055050895.html

Sacked St Mary's parish priest Fr Peter Kennedy and parishioner Jenny Fraccaro with 17 month old Annamaria Fraccaro.
Photo by Jack Tran

Brisbane's rebel priest Father Peter Kennedy has appealed to the Vatican to revoke a decree to sack him.

Parishioners at Fr Kennedy's St Mary's parish in South Brisbane have been sent letters asking them to write to the Vatican requesting Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko reverse a decree from Archbishop John Bathersby ousting Fr Kennedy from the church.

Fr Kennedy himself has also requested the Vatican intervene.

Appearing on ABC1 panel program Q&A last night, the maverick cleric slammed the Catholic Church's teachings on sex and its treatment of women.

"I think the Church is so wrong about its teaching on sex, because women are excluded."

"This is one of the horrible things that the Church does."

Archbishop Bathersby controversially terminated Fr Kennedy's tenure at St Mary's over his unorthodox practices, including blessing homosexual couples, not wearing traditional vestments and allowing parishioners to lead parts of the service.

He last night admitted that his congregation had engaged in practices that would not be widely accepted by the Catholic Church.

"Yes, there were blessings of homosexual couples.

"We (had) been flying under the radar for quite a while."

"These people, these ultra-orthodox Catholics, came into our parish uninvited and started taking pictures.

"They then reported these findings to the Vatican."