On the other hand, those staff who actively encourage thee patients are failing to live and practice their Catholic faith. This hardly the fault of the Catholic Church or the Mercy Hospital.

Unlike Nazi Germany or some other so-called religions, the Catholic Church does not FORCE its people to follow the commandments – this is left to their own conscience. However, when a teacher (i.e a priest) sets out to form his own sets of rules and beliefs he can hardly then claim to be speaking on behalf of the Church.

History is replete with heretics who claimed to know more than what the Catholic Church taught and set themselves up as authorities on the subject.

Time has shown each of them to be at best well-meaning but hopelessly misguided individuals who unfortunately did a lot of harm to both the Catholic Church but also to the people who followed them out of the Church.

The fact that a thousand people attend a particular church does not make it right. there is a lot of evidence to the contrary e.g some of the televangelists in the USA.

I empathize with shadowwalker’s experience with his parish. Unfortunately, priests today are over-worked human beings who unfortunately can’t do everything that is often expected of them. Often the resources available to them in the parish are extremely limited and despite their best efforts things fall through the cracks in the floor-boards. This is no reason to judge the entire Catholic Church by the human failings of an overworked priest. Do give it another go (in another parish, if necessary) and you may be pleasantly surprised.

God Bless

Some catholic beliefs things are though, such as the divinity of Christ, the trinity, and the existence of Heaven and Hell. Kennedy has denied all of these, just as various heretics have throughout the ages. They have never been vindicated (and it’s been way more than 400 years of many of of them), and so Kennedy will not be, because he cannot be.

Galileo, incidentally, was never excommunicated either, as I fear Peter Kennedy soon will be. A alternate telling of the Galileo vs church story can be read here

http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/2008/03/galileo-inquisition-fully-explained.html

Yes, it’s by a devout Catholic, but it doesn’t necessarily make it wrong!

Cheers!

The Catholic Church has been losing people worldwide for many years now. I know, I was raised Catholic and stopped attending church many years ago.

At one point when my daughter was small, I made the attempt to return to the church because I felt something was missing from our lives. I talked with a priest who was going to get someone to help bring us into the church. It didn’t happen. True I was living in poverty at the time. Still am. But it would seem I wasn’t worth this priest’s effort to be brought back to the church because he sure didn’t make it. And, at that time I needed convincing because I was still struggling with my image of the church as a place for the wealthy and the elite to congregate and talk about doing good works while completely ignoring the actual work that needed to be done.

I admire Father Peter Kennedy for standing up for his congregation. He was giving the people there what they needed or they wouldn’t have attended. He was increasing the numbers of attendees while all around him the faithful were losing their faith and turning away from the church.

If my parish had had a priest like Father Peter Kennedy, I may have returned to the church and become part of a community that walks its talk.

As it is I’ve got no use for an institution that chooses top-down control of parishioners rather than hearing the voices of the people.

If things were set in stone based on concrete tenants Gallileo would never have been vindicated no?

Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world’s structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture….

– Pope John Paul II, L’Osservatore Romano N. 44 (1264) – November 4, 1992

Doesn’t sound concrete to me at all.

I’m not suggesting that in 400 years time Kennedy is going to be vindicated but still, this clearly demonstrates that the roman catholic isn’t this instiution with values set in stone for eternity, despite what Church HQ would have you think.

The answer to your questiosn is yes, when it comes to matters of faith.

Furthermore, the church only appears to be at the whim of whoever’s in charge to those who no nothing about the history of the Church, and the creation of its basic tenants. I suggest a close reading of the official catechism as a means of clearing up your misconceptions and questions, Ozsoapbox.
I can get a copy to you, if you like!

Popularity is no measure of truth and righteousness, incidentally. a fair few Germans came to realise that about 60 years ago, didn’t they?

At the end of the day are all those rules and beliefs set in concrete? The roman church appears to be at the whim of whoever is in charge at rome at any given time.

Given the popularity of the parish and the good they were doing in the greater community in the name of the church who’s to say they weren’t roman catholics? I’m not arguing he wasn’t thinking differently to some core values but the general message had to have been there or why would 1000+ people rock up every week to hear him preach. Maybe Kennedy just fast forwarded a few centuries and was practicing the future of christianity, today.

Such a priest is a serious danger to the catholic faithful who depend on their priests to convey to them the truths of their religion and not some half-boiled personal opinion.

When such a pries refuses to mend his ways the Catholic church has no option but to remove his priestly powers until he sees the error of his ways.

If he still refuses to see the light and continues to wage a battle against the church then the oply option open to him is to leave the church on which he has so willingly turned his back or suffer excommunication.

Anybody that attends Mass or the sacraments celebrated by a priest after he has been suspended or excommunicated is not attending a valid service and ineed could be exposing themselves unwittingly to danger.

For example, if a person goes to confession to a priest who has been suspended or excommunicated is not receiving the benefit of the sacrament and their sins are not forgiven.

Furthermore, as this is not a vlid sacrament, there is protection from the seal of the confessional and anything confessed to such a “priest” can be used as evidence in a subsequent court case and the “priest” suffer the consequences of contempt of court if he refuses to divulge the information or perjury if he lies in court.

These are all serious matters and not to be taken lightly.

The Catholic Church does a lot of good around the world and let us not forget that all the good that Fr Kennedy did for the last 28 at St Marys South Brisbane was not in his name but in the name of the Catholic Church (or was it?)

If if was done in the name of the Catholic Church then there is no reason why it cannot continue.

If it was done is his own name then he has been living a lie.

It is high time the parishioners saw through this charade and decided if they want to be Catholics or form some other religion with no connection to the Catholic church.

As I see it, they want to have their cake and eat it as well !!