{"id":750,"date":"2012-08-08T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T10:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/archbishop-hart-blasts-melbourne-paper-for-highlighting-sacrilegious-mass\/"},"modified":"2012-08-08T10:02:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T10:02:00","slug":"archbishop-hart-blasts-melbourne-paper-for-highlighting-sacrilegious-liturgy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/08\/archbishop-hart-blasts-melbourne-paper-for-highlighting-sacrilegious-liturgy\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Hart blasts Melbourne paper for highlighting sacrilegious liturgy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Melbourne, Australia, Aug 8, 2012 \/ 04:02 am (CNA<\/a>).- The Archbishop of Melbourne denounced a local newspaper for its story about a breakaway group of \u201cInclusive Catholics,\u201d led by a renegade priest who allegedly gave Holy Communion to a dog.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThat anyone would feed the Eucharist to a dog is an abomination,\u201d Archbishop Denis J. Hart of Melbourne said in an Aug. 6 statement, issued by the archdiocese in response to a report the same day in The Age newspaper.<\/p>\n

\tThe paper, he said, had mocked Catholic beliefs by featuring the incident, which occurred at a service conducted by the \u201cInclusive Catholics\u201d group. Its leader, Father Greg Reynolds, resigned from the Melbourne archdiocese in 2011 and does not have permission to offer Mass or serve as a priest.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cA first-time visitor arrived late at the Inclusive Catholics service in South Yarra with a large and well-trained German shepherd,\u201d writer Barney Zwartz wrote in his account of the group's Aug. 5 service.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhen the consecrated bread and wine were passed around, the visitor took some bread and fed it to his dog,\u201d Zwartz recounted. \u201cApart from one stifled gasp, those present showed admirable presence of mind \u2013 but the dog was not offered the cup!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIt is unclear, however, whether the \u201cconsecrated bread\u201d consumed by the dog was in fact the Holy Eucharist.<\/p>\n

\tThe story mentioned that \u201ca woman, Irene Wilson, led the liturgy,\u201d while Fr. Reynolds \u201cplayed as small a role as he could.\u201d Given Fr. Reynolds' minimal participation in the lay-led service, the \u201cconsecrated bread\u201d may not have received a valid Eucharistic consecration at all.<\/p>\n

\tWhether or not the \u201cMass\u201d was valid, Archbishop Hart told The Age that the events portrayed in the story were a source of grave offense for Catholics.<\/p>\n

\tThe article, he told the paper in a letter, was written \u201cin bad faith,\u201d with a tone that showed disrespect to \u201cthe most fundamental and defining belief\u201d of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\tWhile the story acknowledged Fr. Reynolds' theological dissent and the \u201cillicit\u201d nature of the group's services, Archbishop Hart seemed displeased by Zwartz's attempts at cleverness \u2013 such as the lead paragraph's riff on the \u201cInclusive Catholics\u201d welcoming \u201cevery man and his dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThat you should choose to report the matter in the way that you did can only be understood as an attempt to hold Catholicism up to ridicule,\u201d the Melbourne church leader wrote in his Aug. 6 letter to the editor of The Age.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYour integrity in this matter can be judged by asking whether, if something sacred to Judaism or Islam had similarly been desecrated, you would have treated the matter with such flippancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne, Australia, Aug 8, 2012 \/ 04:02 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Melbourne denounced a local newspaper for its story about a breakaway group of “Inclusive Catholics,” led by a renegade priest who allegedly gave Holy Communion to a dog…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"yoast_head":"\nArchbishop Hart blasts Melbourne paper for highlighting sacrilegious liturgy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Melbourne, Australia, Aug 8, 2012 \/ 04:02 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Melbourne denounced a local newspaper for its story about a breakaway group of “Inclusive Catholics,” led by a renegade priest who allegedly gave Holy Communion to a dog...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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