Screenshot from the ABC report
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The Church has confirmed Father Bob Maguire's tenure at Saint Peter and Paul's parish in South Melbourne will end next year, reports the ABC.
The archdiocese was putting pressure on the 77-year-old to step down because of his age, but Father Maguire says he wanted to stay on, the report adds.
He was given the news in a phone call with Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart. "I said well, fair enough, you're in charge if that's what you want to do. Nothing I can do about it," he said.
"It's a bit of a shock and it's a bit of a surprise because the Catholic Church globally and locally had been running on the model of conversation."
Father Maguire admits he does not know what he will do next. Archbishop Hart says he is happy with Father Maguire's work but wants to free him of the administrative burden involved with being a parish priest.
"With him being 77 with the way things have gone on, I think it's best for us to allow Father Bob to do the things for which we know and love him but to relieve him of the day-to-day work of the parish of South Melbourne," he told the ABC.
"What we'll do is we will be able to set him up in a base where he can still continue to do his community work.
"He can relate to the community he loves, he can still say masses in our parishes around Melbourne, so there is lots of flexibility.
"I don't ever think Bob Maguire will go to a retired priests home."
Father Maguire says the church is being bloody-minded by insisting he retire next year, adding that he hopes the public will lobby the church to allow him to keep working.
FULL STORY AND RELATED COVERAGE
Father Bob forced out by Catholic Church (ABC)
Father Bob Maguire slams Cardinal Pell (ninemsn)
Father Bob fumes: pull the bloody trigger for God's sake (Brisbane Times)
Fr Bob Maguire urges supporters to lobby Vatican ambassador (Herald Sun)
PHOTO CREDIT
Screenshot from the ABC report