News from around the Catholic world for the week ending 27 September.
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• Melbourne priest excommunicated
• Incoming Archbishop calls for moratorium on ACT bill to redefine marriage
• Tasmanian MPs to have conscience vote on euthanasia
• Archbishop calls for government to protect Christians in Pakistan
• John Allen Jr on ‘The Francis Effect’
TRANSCRIPT
SARAH: A Melbourne priest has been laicised and excommunicated by Pope Francis for teaching against Church doctrine and offering public Masses despite having his faculties removed.
Fr Greg Reynolds received notification of the Holy Father’s decision in a letter dated 31 May 2013. Fr Reynolds signed the decree, which effectively indicates that he is forbidden to have a ministerial role in the celebration of any sacraments or acts of public worship, receive any sacrament, exercise any Church ministry or hold any office in the Church.
Fr Reynolds resigned as Parish Priest of Westernport Parish in 2011 and was asked to step down from public ministry by Melbourne’s Archbishop Denis Hart following his persistent preaching against Church doctrine on issues such as the ordination of women. He later formed a community of dissident Catholics and continued to celebrate the Eucharist publicly, despite not having the faculties to do so.
Archbishop Hart stressed that the decision to excommunicate a cleric is never taken lightly and without attempts resolve the issue first through other means. In a statement sent to Cradio the Archbishop said “on this occasion I sought in a spirit of pastoral and fraternal concern to encourage Greg Reynolds to cease his activities contrary to the teachings of the Church but without success.” (View statement from Archbishop Hart)
In 2012 it was reported that at an illicit liturgy where Fr Reynolds was present, the Holy Eucharist was given to the pet dog of one of the attendees. It is not clear whether the host had actually been consecrated, owing to questions around the validity of the liturgy, which was led mainly by a lay woman.
The incoming Archbishop of Canberra & Goulburn, Most Reverend Christopher Prowse has called for a moratorium on a bill seeking to redefine marriage in the ACT. The Archbishop has asked that no new marriage legislation be passed until Australians have had more time to debate the matter in a calm and reasoned manner.
Archbishop Prowse said “I’m a person who is open to listening to people but I’ve also got plenty of opinions of my own and I think the Catholic Church’s opinion on such matters – we represent a reflection on humanity going over 2000 years … I think that gives us a certain confidence to have our opinions heard and, in a reasoned way, debate with people,”
The ACT Marriage Equality Bill 2013 was introduced to the Legislative Assembly last week with debate expected to resume on 22 October.
Meanwhile in Tasmania, all three political parties have granted MPs a conscience vote on Euthanasia legislation tabled in parliament this week. Under the proposed bill patients would have to wait one week between making a written request and ending their own life using a lethal medication administered by the patient or their medical practitioner.
In a statement released yesterday, Hobart’s Archbishop Julian Porteous referred to the ineffectiveness of safeguards implemented in places such as the Netherlands where 300 people die each year without giving explicit consent. He reiterated the risk of making the elderly and infirm feel as though they are a burden on an under-resourced hospital system.
The Archbishop said “A good society will be identified by its preparedness to show respect for its vulnerable citizens: the elderly, the sick and those living with disabilities”. (View Archbishop Porteous’ Statement)
The debate on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill is expected to take place in October. A similar bill was voted down in Tasmania in 2009.
The Archbishop of Karachi has called on the Pakastani government to address the alarming growth in religious and sectarian violence.
In a note sent to Fides News Agency, Archbishop Joseph Coutts condemned the violent attacks on places of prayer as a “shameful act of cowardice” and asked the government to “take immediate steps to arrest those responsible for this attack and to protect places of worship of all religious minorities in the country.”
The Archbishop’s comments come after last week’s double suicide bombing at a Christian church in Peshawar. The attack, which took place during a Sunday Mass, left at least 8- dead and 120 wounded.
In other news, acclaimed Vatican journalist John Allen Jr made a whirlwind visit to Sydney recently to offer his reflections on the Pontificate of Pope Francis.
At an event hosted by Catholic Youth Services Sydney at Australian Catholic University, the NCR correspondent spoke about the significance of the election of a Pope from the developing world at this point in history.
JOHN L ALLEN JR: “… it tends to be Christians in the developing world… who bear the brunt of this rising wave of violations of religious freedom, this rising wave of persecutions and assault on the basis of one’s faith. I submit to you that the first pope from the developing world is going to feel a special historical and providential obligation to be a voice and a face for the concerns and the suffering of this Christian population. And again I think it is no accident that he’s fastened upon Egypt and Syria as being his core issues of diplomatic interest because those are the places on the global map today where Christians are most at risk.”
SARAH: You can listen to the whole talk on the Cradio website. That’s it for this week’s headlines, thanks for listening.
Music Credit: Waking Up Instrumental – Dexter Britain
