A homily which suggested putting a paedophile priest in one of Jesus’ parables has sparked concern after it was published in an Australian school newsletter.
In the homily, Fr Bill Edebohls of Malvern East in Melbourne took aim at lawyers and media at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
He said he was concerned the royal commission would not give victims an opportunity to heal.
“Why? Because both the media and the lawyers, like the baying crowd of men in the Gospel ready to throw stones, don’t understand the need for a justice that is drenched in mercy.”
Fr Edebohls was preaching on the Gospel account of Jesus and the woman caught committing adultery.
“Maybe to get the real drama and effect of the story we ought to replace the adulterous woman with a paedophile priest,” he stated.
The priest’s homily went on to say: “That does not mean there is no condemnation of the sin, no punishment or consequences for the perpetrator or an institution that protected him. But it does mean justice with mercy.”
“Condemnation alone leaves the person with their sin with no way out, so nothing is lost by repeat offences.”
The statements were printed in the local parish school’s March newsletter. The school regularly puts homilies in its newsletter.
One parent said it was abhorrent to compare a crime like paedophilia with a moral issue like adultery.
Bernard Barrett, a researcher at victims support group Broken Rites, said Fr Edebohls’ comments downplayed serious crimes.
Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne spokesman Shane Healy said Fr Edebohls had replaced the adulterous woman of Jesus’ time with the worst sinner in our time, the paedophile priest.
Mr Healy said Fr Edebohls was “absolutely not” comparing paedophilia to adultery.
But the spokesman added that “lazy people who didn’t go to the trouble of reading the thing fully might very well land there”.
Fr Edebohls wrote an explanatory note that was sent home to parents of St Mary’s primary school last week.
Fr Edebohls was once the Anglican Dean of Ballarat and was Melbourne’s first married priest to run a Catholic parish.
Sources
- The Age
- The Guardian
- Image: Orthocuban