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1. I confidently predict a torrent of outrage over this.
   Was this really a Catholic Mass?
   If giving the Body of Christ to a dog is not sufficient reason for instant excommunication, I would very much like to know why it is not.

   Posted By: Denis Goodwin

2. I'm positive that our canine friend wasn't the first dog to partake of Holy Communion.
   I don't blame the owner, nor those in charge of the liturgy.
   This is truly a real challenge for us who live in the Specieism days inaugurated by Peter Singer et al who want to ascribe to animals equality with humans.
   Take a look at some 'Catholic' sites on the internet dealing with animals and one can see examples worse than the one reported here.
   And it's all touted as Catholic teaching being sincerely applied.
   Christians will need to make a stand against such false teaching so as to conserve the true understanding of human identity as well as the part to be vied out in creation by animals.
   I will continue to bless animals and pray with children when their dog is run over etc, but I take the time to explain the difference between animals and humans.
   And I tell the children there is no such place as 'dog heaven' albeit respecting their feelings at the sad moment - I have had several cats as pets and know the reality of dealing with the death of a pet. But no funeral service!!
   St Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
   
   
   
   
   

   Posted By: Fr Mick Mac Andrew

3. Reading The Age article indicates that he has had his faculties to act as a priest removed.
   I assume this means that this illicit mass is not a Catholic mass and the host was not consecrated.
   If so, this is another protestant group.
   We must pray for them and reflect as to why they feel excluded from the true Church.
   The Church teaches the truth and for some it is a hard truth but we can all do our bit as parishoners by welcoming strangers and offering understanding and love.
   This is our challenge to love the sinner while maintaining an objection to the sin.

   Posted By: Ian Spencer

4. Denis Goodwin: I don't think that the Body and Blood of Christ was passed around or given to the dog.
   The service was led by a lay person and the report refers to the 'bread and wine', in this case accurately. This wasn't a Mass of any kind but a sad gathering of persons undoubtedly longing for God's presence in their lives.

   Posted By: Fr Sean Coyle

5. The temple police is alive and active! Father Greg does what Jesus meant, namely to be inclusive and offer hope to the downtrodden.
   The official Church, with its never ending scandals, obviously does not mean much to those attending this service.
   I pray for those who judge so harshly the attempt of one courageous Priest to stand up and do something positive. As for the statment that he has his faculties as a Priest removed, I would hardly believe that Jesus rejects him!

   Posted By: Peter M

6. Fr Mick MacAndrew: How do you know for certain that there is no heaven for the animals? Did Descartes have solid grounds for saying that animals did not have souls?
   It is not clear whether a Mass was celebrated.
   If it was, and despite being illicit, the priest said the words of consecration (being a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech), wouldn't the Mass be valid?

   Posted By: Graham

7. I would have thought the two priests who've commented thus far would know from pastoral experience that you can't always control what happens in a liturgy.
   No one yesterday planned for the dog to recieve the consecrated bread. Stuff happens. Lighten up!
   Some other commentators need to read up on theology.
   Greg Reynolds remains a validly ordained priest.
   As the article said, he led the parts of the mass that a priest has to: the liturgy of the Eucharist and the Eucharistic prayer. This was a valid mass.
   Yes, it was illicit or illegal by church law, but there is absolutely no basis in Catholic teaching for claiming this was not the mass or that the elements were not consecrated. Again the priests who have commented should know this.
   Even more sad is the rush to judge and condemn rather than listening and trying to understand.
   It because of attitudes like these that people seek out new forms of Catholic life.
   Would Jesus be more concerned about someone giving communion to an animal than the many abuses of power that continue in the Church and in his name?
   At least take a moment to ask why committed, adult Catholics are being drawn to communities like Inclusive Catholics.

   Posted By: Michael B Kelly

8. Argue the legalities according to Canon Law of Christ's presence on the day.
   However, Matthew notes that Jesus himself said: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there also (18:20).

   Posted By: mark lees

9. Yes, giving Communion to an animal is a no-no for me.
   However, it's probably far less deplorable than the violence that many popes and other bishops throughout history have inflicted on other people, and what so many clergy in more recent times have inflicted on children (by act and by cover up). These men would, surely, be in mortal sin and, therefore, separated from the grace of God.
   Surely no one is suggesting this priest is committing a mortal sin.

   Posted By: Francis

10. How ridiculous that Fr Greg, would say that his own manufactured brand of 'Catholicism' is 'inclusive'.
    The Catholic Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, accepts everyone just a Christ demanded it did and such is known as the 'hospital of sinners'.
    What the Church does do though, unlike Fr Greg, is tell them what they need to hear and that is that all forms of sin are impediments to happiness in this life and salvation in the next.
    The old adage rings true here.
    Who is the greater friend of the sinner, the friend who loves them enough that they will risk abuse and isolation to tell him that he is in fact a sinner, or the friend who is too cowardly to tell them that there is an objectively better way of living that can bring them closer to Christ?
    I suppose the only saving grace here is that judging by the age of those in the photo it seems that Fr Greg's brand of 'inclusive Catholicism' isn't far off its use-by date.

    Posted By: Nicholas Smith

11. I would like to pick up on just one aspect of this service.
    I believe that it is neccessary in a Catholic Mass the homily has to be delivered by a ordained minister ,either a priest, or a deacon.

    Posted By: John Tobin

12. It's hard to see why The Age considers this more newsworthy than any of the hundreds of similar services conducted in protestant churches in Melbourne every weekend.
    Apparently only because it gave The Age an excuse (as if it needed one) to ridicule Catholicism and vilify Cathiolics and their most precious beliefs.

    Posted By: Peter G

13. If this report is true, then it is truly scandalous!
    The Church's own words which may be proclaimed on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ attest to this: Lo, upon the altar lies, Hidden deep from human eyes, Bread of Angels from the skies, Made the food of mortal man; Children's meat to dogs denied. (Sequence for the feast).

    Posted By: Gareth Mills

14. For Graham: whatever Descartes thought, Aquinas certainly believed that animals have sensitive souls, and we share with them the unified sensuous life of the organism which he called the sensus communis.
    They don't, however, have rational souls with our powers of reason, understanding, deliberation and language which give us a likeness (albeit analogical) to the Creator and a capacity to receive divine truth.
    The 'scientific' scoffers who ridicule the related traditional view that mental acts are immaterial (because they are linguistic and therefore trans-individual) thereby reduce their own science to a passing bodily phenomeneon no different from a hiccup or a sneeze.

    Posted By: Peter

15. I think we would find as Michael B Kelly explains, that Fr. Greg and community would not intend that our canine friend be the recipient of the Eucharist for all the right reasons.
    How it happened is not difficult to fathom.
    And whether one considers this Eucharist to be 'valid' or not, is another question.
    But most importantly, if Christ is all that we believe him to be, he has no need of our protection in such matters.
    He is risen indeed!

    Posted By: Christopher McElhinney

16. Is Fr Greg creating his own magisterium - teaching office? What is his reaction to what happened?

    Posted By: Paul O'Connor

17. It's fairly simple, really.
    The service didn't seem really Catholic, and the bread and wine was probably just that and nothing, or rather, Nobody else, by the sounds of it.
    All that happened was that a poor, unfortunate group of people moved themselves further from Christ in an attempt to get closer to Him. It's a shame that they are being helped by sympathetic journalists.
    Michael B. Kelly asks why 'committed, adult Catholics are being drawn to communities like Inclusive Catholics'.
    Again, it's simple.
    Throughout the history of the Church, there have always been people attracted to Heresy, and that's because there will always be people who seek an easier path to Heaven.

    Posted By: Paul Keen

18. Both Michael B Kelly and Christopher McElhinney refer to Jesus Christ much like the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century used the term Scriptura Sola to deny the truth that Christ's Church is part of the living, organic presence of divine revelation -'You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.' (Matt 16)
    It's interesting since I went public with a paid advertorial in our local district paper raising opposition to the same-sex marriage campaigners' tactics that I've had eight sincere and genuine inquiries regarding becoming Catholic.
    The comments from theses inquirers range from 'I always felt that the Catholic Church would be the one to stand firm when the chips were down' to 'We all like to think Jesus agrees with our opinions, but how often do we take the time to try to know really what Jesus is saying. We need a strong Church to do that and I'm thinking the Catholic one is for me.'

    Posted By: Fr Mick Mac Andrew

19. Unwittingly I am sure, The Age got to the heart of the matter when they reported that 'Fr Reynolds played as small a role as he could.'
    That's what this - and all the other issues of 'dissent' are ultimately all about - the Catholic nature and understanding of the Church and the Catholic nature and understanding of the priesthood.
    I sense a great deal of inverted searching for power here - not ministry.
    And it is always demonstrated in the clericalizing of the laity and the laicising of the clery - because both those states of life have taken on, or had foisted on to them - a bad smell in the grab for power I refer to.
    I wonder if Fr Reynolds began this Mass with the words 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son..etc.' Or, 'In the name of Greg Reynolds and us'?
    

    Posted By: Phillip Turnbull

20. It was a first-time visitor. He was welcomed as he should have been. The visitor gave the dog communion, not the priest.
    The priest might well have dealt with the issue later. It would have been unkind to counsel the man in front of everyone.
    This might well have been a man who was venturing nervously into the church for the first time in years and his only real friend may have been his dog, and he honoured the dog (rightly or wrongly) by including it in the eucharist.
    Should dogs receive communion? No. Even though, frankly, they are universally more kind and loving than human beings, I find!
    But more important, I really don't think Christ would be jumping up and down over the incident, so why we are escapes me.

    Posted By: Nick

21. Phillip Turnbull raises an important point extrapolated from the main story: that of the inversion of roles at the mass and their expressions of power.
    If the yearning of laity for more of a voice within the Church is essentially nothing more than about power in its most egocentric form then the calls for reform are bogus. So, too, if the reasons for resisting more inclusion are based upon keeping power within a priestly caste.
    It probably won't be in our lifetime, but an honest and Spirit-inspired re-look at theologies of priesthood, free of the very real and malicious power struggles that are the current norm, are going to have to happen.
    Or who knows, maybe even a patient re-look at that already stated at Vatican II?

    Posted By: Mark Johnson

22. Barney Swartz just keeps churning out this anti-catholic material which I think any fair-mindedm informed person would know is offensive to Catholics.
    I would ask The Age to issue a prominent public apology.
    I would call on all Catholics to hit The Age where it hurts and cease to outlay their $1-70 each day. I have!
    The Age has been a constant in the life of our family since the 1860's, beginning with my protestant great great grandparents.
    Enough of Barney Zwartz, The Age and their agenda!

    Posted By: JMC

23. For Fr. Mick Mac Andrew: 'Both Michael B Kelly and Christopher McElhinney refer to Jesus Christ...'
    Mick, thanks for your interest, but I'm afraid I don't quite understand where you are coming from in relation to my points above when you refer to Sola Scriptura - the holding that scripture alone contains all that is required for salvation etc.
    I’d be happy to consider further if you would like to clarify.

    Posted By: Christopher McElhinney

24. Once while I was celebrating Mass on the edge of Lima among people who were extremely poor, a woman who had witnessed the murder of her husband and children by the Shining Path, and who remained deeply disturbed emotionally and psychologically, broke off a piece of the host and fed it to her dog right in front of me as I gave out communion.
    I was taken aback, to say the least. But pastoral sensitivity and common sense determined my choice to draw no attention to the incident, both for the good of the poor woman, and for the good of those present.
    I had no feelings for the dog one way or the other at the time.

    Posted By: M. McKinnon

25. Another South Brisbane-style splinter group composed it would appear of largely older, Anglo-Celtic Australians disaffected, for a variety of reasons, with the Catholic Church. Perhaps there is room for these splinter groups on the periphery of Catholicism but they inevitably morph into cults based on one individual and his followers and have nothing really to offer for the future.
    The Brisbane example is instructive - at last report in the media the man there now denies the divinity of Christ and isn't sure if he believes any of it any more.
    Meanwhile the Catholic church, through its loyal priests and lay people, keeps on quietly serving the community, nourishing the faith of the younger people and ignoring the loud voices of disgruntled ex-priests, old style liberal clergy and their mates in the secular media...

    Posted By: annie

26. I'm very late to this debate so probably no-one will read this but, for what it's worth....
    JMC: you say this article is offensive to Catholics.
    I'm a Catholic, and it's not offensive to me.
    What I do find offensive, as a Catholic, are other Catholics telling people who do not agree with them that they are not truly Catholic, are not worthy of the Sacraments, etc. Everything I know about Jesus tells me that he would find this offensive, too - remember Zaccheus, the adultress?
    He also told us that we are the Church.
    So, when the Church Heirarchy tells us that, if we question their instructions, maybe the 'Church is not to for you', they are nonsensical.
    I am the Church, so are you - we just happen to disagree with each other.

    Posted By: Annette

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