Catholic priest calls police onto parishioners

SYDNEY — On May 29, Redfern parish priest and Neocatechumenal Way sect member Dennis Sudla threw a cross painted in the Aboriginal colours onto the floor while saying mass, and smashed a table on which it had been standing. Later, three Neocatechumenal Way seminarians grabbed a parishioner in a headlock and Sudla called in the Redfern police.

The mass began with the reading of a threatening letter from the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, recently appointed by Archbishop George Pell. The letter warned parishioners that Fisher had directed parish priests to seek police help in the event of "disruptions".

Later, without explanation or warning, Sudla desecrated the Aboriginal cross.

Neocatechumenal Way members are hostile to the remaining signs of the Aboriginal-centred liberation theology sponsored by Sudla's predecessor, Ted Kennedy. They notably did not attend Kennedy's funeral on May 24.

"They seem to despise Aboriginal people", a prominent parishioner told Green Left Weekly. "They have told us that the Aboriginal people are irrelevant to their ministry."

The Neocatechumenal Way has also come to dominate the Perth suburban parish of Kelmscott with similar controversial results.

Barry Healy

From Green Left Weekly, June 22, 2005.

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From GLW issue 630