AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Calla Wahlquist
@callapilla
Friday 15 April 2016
The Catholic church in Melbourne has defended comments by a parish priest that likened paedophile priests to biblical adulterers as an “excellent homily” and said only “lazy people” would interpret it as equating an extramarital affair with paedophilia.
The homily, delivered by Father Bill Edebohls at St Mary’s church East Malvern on Palm Sunday and reprinted in full in the newsletter of the adjacent Catholic primary school, as it is every week, replaced the adulterous woman shown mercy by Jesus in a gospel story with a priest accused of paedophilia.
“Maybe to get the real drama and effect of the story we ought to replace the adulterous woman with a paedophile priest,” Edebohls said. “Then we might begin to understand the mob eager to stone and the outrageous and profligate mercy and compassion of God ever ready to forgive.”
The full homily, seen by Guardian Australia, speaks of the need to separate the sin from the sinner, arguing the church should be “a community free from legalism or justice without mercy” before drawing the parallel.
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