Fifteen years ago, 700 parishioners followed their renegade priest out of St Mary’s. The congregation survived relocation and lack of acceptance – but it is age that might finish it off
They called him “the man who threatened Rome” and “our beloved heretic”. When Brisbane Catholic priest Peter Kennedy was sacked in February 2009, banned from serving the church anywhere in the world, it caused an international scandal.
His crime wasn’t committing or covering up systematic child sexual abuse, backing autocrats, or fraud. Under Kennedy’s rule, women could preach, the clergy did not wear vestments, they blessed LGBTQ+ marriages and amended the liturgy, the ritual of worship, to better reflect the community he served. For this he was threatened with excommunication.
