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1. Thank you Archbishop Hart. How this group even got the title of Catholics is beyond me.
   What they were celebrating was not the Mass but a deformation of the Mass. How low can things get in this allow anything, criticise nothing society?
   It appears that the priest [is he?] is seeking attention and will stoop to new lows to get it.

   Posted By: MJS

2. However the Heirachy of the Catholic Church must take some responsibility. Dialogue with Catholic people is seriously flawed, and this is one of the outcomes.

   Posted By: Anne Schmid

3. For the Catholics who affirm the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the desecration described in the article from The Age is extremely disturbing.
   Less disturbing but still quite offensive was the tone adopted by those involved in producing the article.
   Every Catholic in Melbourne should join Archbishop Hart in condemning the 'flippancy' of the tone in this article, not because everyone needs to show special deference to Catholicism but because basic courtesy and common decency dictate that one ought to show respect to the fundamental beliefs of any given religion.
   I wonder what tone the article would have adopted if, for example, a halal butcher was found to be tainting meat with porcine products.
   With regards to the action described in the article; not only is desecration of the Blessed Sacrament a reserved sin, what an affront this action was to those RCIA candidates who each year spend a great deal of time preparing to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus for the first time. Many approach the Sacrament with an awe and wonder that Catholics everywhere would do well to emulate.

   Posted By: Frank

4. Thank you, Archbishop Hart, for your measured and clear statement to The Age.
   I, too, was utterly disgusted with the reporting and with the disrespect to what we hold so precious in our faith and practice.
   

   Posted By: Sr. Barbara Brown-Graham FCJ

5. I fully agree with the comments made by Archbishop Hart.

   Posted By: John Tobin

6. Putting aside the legitimacy or not of the actual mass/ministry in question, Archbishop Hart does well to point to the inconsistency with how political correctness is employed by mainstream media to ridicule one set of beliefs, but does not dare do the same with other, let's say more activist, systems of belief.
   

   Posted By: Mark Johnson

7. I wonder how much pain Christians in Australia have to endure when one of the most respected newspapers in Australia shows so little respect to Christian faith.
   We are dealing here with the most fundamental aspect of Christian faith. It is not comprehensible, indeed reprehensible to ridicule Christ whose sole purpose was to proclaim love and reconciliation.The Age has truly become a paper of gossips and banalities.
   I support absolutely the Archbishop's complaint about the insensivity of the editor.

   Posted By: Joseph Lam

8. Thank you, Archbishop Hart, for speaking up and defending our faith. You cannot separate Christ from the Church.
   The journalist responsible for printing such a sickening story and the Age for allowing it shows to what a low and unprofessional level they have fallen.
   Catholic bashing is becoming fashionable, common decency and respect is obviously not!

   Posted By: Sr D Cooper

9. I hold no brief for The Age which I think is a lefty rag.
   I hold less for the Peter Kennedys and the Greg Reynolds of the world, not to mention the publicity-seeking Michael Kelly.
   However, to blame The Age for reporting the facts is surely shooting the messenger.
   Someone told The Age that this parody of a liturgy was to be carried out, the reporter didn't find it by accident.
   Like most Age reporters, (s)he is totally ignorant of the Catholic or any other beliefs so cannot be blamed for the seriousness of the offence or the blasphemy.
   Given the obviously impure intention of Reynolds, surely no real consecration took place.
   As well as losing, his faculties he should be excommunicated as well - and all with him.
   This is something which I believe they would all have autromatically incurred.

   Posted By: Peter S

10. The Fairfax media has been on anti-Catholic binge for a number of years. There are a number of journalists who appear to have made it their life's objective to bring down the Church, with misreporting, mockery and ridicule as their weapons.
    Even allowing for the fact that the pedophilia scandal, which has done much harm to the 'Catholic brand', is a legitimate target for public scrutiny because it has blighted the lives of too many people, for the Age and the SMH you would think that it is only issue other than gay marriage.
    The latest rubbish published by The Age is an insult to all practising Catholics who understand their religion, despite the human failings that mark every human's life.
    I believe in a secular state that is a platform that provides freedom for all, but in the modern version of 'secularism' which sees an almost cult like zealotry there is a totalitarian tendency which eventually endangers all freedoms, religious and otherwise.

    Posted By: John Launder

11. Full marks to His Grace for taking The Age, a newspaper with a long history of irrational dislike of individual Catholics and the wider Church, to task.
    The item covered in the article is not newsworthy. The fact that The Age chose to publish it is further confirmation of its campaign against the mainstream Church and its inextricable slide into the very worst sort of tabloid journalism.

    Posted By: Allan Ansell

12. Well done, Archbishop Hart, for speaking out against the demeaning of the Blessed Sacrament.
    It is about time that as Catholics we defend our faith with intelligence and good reason!

    Posted By: Paul

13. The Age was correct in reporting this abomination. The Archbishop's criticisn would best be directed towards the priest.

    Posted By: Bob Burke

14. Peter S comes closest to my view of the situation with regard to Inclusive Catholics.
    It seems to me the incident highlights a basic problem with the Catholic church.
    Its hierarchy has hidebound its communities with absolutist meanings to words that are too inadequate to describe spiritual and/or metaphysical realities.
    Fr Reynolds has suffered this in reverse.
    When he used the cliche of welcoming 'every man (note the gender limitation) and his dog' it is not surprising that someone took him literally.
    Maybe the one man and his dog were trying to make a philosophical point.
    Be that as it may, I see nothing that indicates that Inclusive Catholics claim that the bread and wine was either consecrated or transubtantiated or that any deliberate act of abomination was intended.
    I can think of many many more important issues on which the Archbishop could attack The Age and/or its journalists, but this story would have been best ignored.

    Posted By: Joe

15. Archbishop Hart gets to the crux of the matter when he asks would the media be so flippant when reporting on an issue central to other religions; particularly on something relative to the hyper sensitive members of Islam? I think not; as a matter of fact, I'm sure they would not.

    Posted By: Barry

16. The Editor of the Age should make make a public apology to the readers he/she has offended, on the front page. T
    he Archbishop should also excommunicate those who took part in this abominable desecration.
    Thousands over centuries past have given their lives, affirming the sacredness of the 'Real presence'.
    To observe that The Age uses the Royal Cipher as its Crest, meaning 'My God and my Right' is also an indication of how hypocritical the paper has become.
    The journalist may have done all a service.
    We should now all get behind Archbishop Hart as a true shepherd of his flock and should a suitable apology from the Editor not be forthcoming, cease buying the Age altogether.

    Posted By: Peter C Donnelly

17. Thanks to Archbishop Hart for speaking out.
    I found the reporting to be insensitive to our tradition of the sacredness of the Eucharist.

    Posted By: Robert Nixon

18. Your Media statement was the 'Way to go', Archbishop Hart.
    It is a question I often ask the secular world, would you ridicule Islam or Judaism or Hinduism in this manner?
    We Catholics often let the blow flies of the media buzz around, turning the other cheek, this is often returned by being trampled upon! Good one Archbishop Hart!
    

    Posted By: Regina Abraham

19. I haven't read the article as I don't get The Age in WA.
    However I contend that this was a deliberate attempt to offend Catholics.
    Not surprising coming from a paper that abuses, mocks and ridicules Catholics and their beliefs on a regular basis without fear of strong response particularly of a physical kind.
    This is cowardly behaviour but then the reporters of this story couldn't care less as long as they do the devil's business.
    As Christ himself would say 'forgive them Father for they know not what they do'. Eternal Justice will visit these people, these pathetic fools, in the end. I pity them in their ignorance.

    Posted By: deric davidson

20. Barney Schwartz, the reporter, is no enemy of Christianity and was doing his job.
    But, yes, it was a matter for the Archbishop's attention, too.
    But why do people go to these alternate liturgies?
    What is it about the official ones they find inadequate?
    How much thought goes into your average Sunday sermon, for instance? And how much re-interpretation of the Christian message post-Darwin, is going on?
    I don't support the idea of giving the bread to the dog.
    I suspect Greg Nichols was embarrassed too, and will assert some guidelines as he goes along.
    But I suggest his mission is valid and well intended.
    The perpetrator perhaps wanted to make the point that dogs make better friends than humans, and that he loved his dog. Wrong-headed in the context (it's about human solidarity with God) but not hangable.
    Humans and other living creatures do belong to the same family. The C of E has good pet services. Perhaps the RCs should folllow suit.

    Posted By: Brian Dethridge

21. Barney Zwartz just keeps churning out this anti-catholic material which I think any fai- minded informed person would know is highly offensive to all Catholics.
    I call on all Catholics to hit The Age where it hurts, and cease buying the journal of these repeat and constant offenders. I have!
    The Age has been part of the life of our family since the 1860's begining with my great great grandparents. Enough of The Age, Barney Zwartz, and their agenda.

    Posted By: JMC

22. Congratulations to Archbishop Hart in defending the church against another attack by the media.
    They are getting bolder each time. Let's hope the demise of this news group is sooner rather than later

    Posted By: Ron Gane

23. The Age has a respectable racing guide.

    Posted By: John

24. I must agree with JMC. After a lifetime as an Age reader I quit.
    May I suggest that any Catholic institution, and schools particularly, give Fairfax a miss.
    Forget the free copies and the invitations to be part of their educational programs.
    In the 1950's - granted a long time ago - Archbishop Mannix asked that no Catholic buy the Argus. It lasted a month afterwards. Vote with your money.

    Posted By: Bill

25. What a joy to find almost all responses to Archbishop Hart's statement show such a strong belief in the Eucharist and a horror at The Age's totally insensitive and offensive article.
    I, too, congratulate the Archbishop.
    Congratulations, too, on the wonderful blog of Patricia Mowbray on sensitivity to people with disabilities.

    Posted By: Fr. Hugh Thomas

26. Let's get this straight - it was not the Priest who fed the dog, and surely, it was wrong and should not even have been reported.
    But surely, this is not Catholic bashing.
    Why do people attend such liturgies? Because they are fed up with the official Church, they are ashamed and disgusted with the official Church Government.
    Priests who abuse children and then consecrate bread and wine afterwards and before? Is this a lesser evil?
    Or the crimes committed in Rome by the Vatican Bank and the Vatileaks?
    May he who has never sinned cast the first stone.
    Perhaps all the loveless critics should offer a prayer to our Lord who welcomes the outcasts.

    Posted By: Peter

27. Well said! Good for this bishop.
    When someone speaking of the Catholic Mass and the Eucharist sacrilegiously calls the Body and Blood of Christ 'bread and wine', whether they are Catholic or not, we should correct them.
    There is certainly a way non-Catholics could write about this while being respectful of what Catholics believe. The incident was an extremely serious one and the priest involved, who is ministering illicitly, clearly needs to rethink what he is doing.

    Posted By: Elizabeth D

28. Although I found this whole article disturbing, my understanding is that this priest is has had his faculties removed and therefore can't consecrate the bread and wine.
    Although their intent might have been sacrilege, I would suppose that technically none occurred.
    Not excusing the behavior, it makes me feel better to know our Lord's body wasn't really desecrated.

    Posted By: jem

29. The Bishop is protesting the news article, but what about the actual priest who celebrated mass for this dissident 'Catholic' community?
    What about the person that gave the Eucharist to a dog?
    That is the real scandal, not the reporting of it.
    Maybe the report will get the bishops motivated to do something about dissident 'Catholics'?
    I doubt it.

    Posted By: Rod

30. As a Catholic I find this not acceptable - however a blessing of the animal may have been more appropriate if animals are to be wbrought into the church their owners.
    But I agree with all the comments by Peter - there are much bigger issues than this to pay so much attention to, such as Priests who abuse children and and then offer up the sacrament in Mass
    Greg Reynolds offers a place for the many Christians /Catholics who feel they are not wanted or worthy to go to a catholic mass that is so outspoken about issue that are very personal to them

    Posted By: Judith Galea

31. Thank you, Archbishop Hart.
    I read the article just a few minutes ago and thought at first that the officiating minister at that service was a priest and it was only when I went to another site that I was aware that he had actually decided to separate himself from the church.
    He might be doing a good thing ministering to these people but it should be made clear that the catholic church doesn't approve of his abuse of the Eucharist.

    Posted By: Philomena Zambelli

32. I note that it was a first-time visitor to this community who fed his dog.
    No way of telling if the man knew he was giving offence, let alone if he was Christian.

    Posted By: Todd

33. With deference to Abp Hart, why should we suppose this was a desecration?
    The original article explains that '...a woman, Irene Wilson, led the liturgy and another, Emmy Silvius, preached the homily. Two more passed the bread and wine around. Father Reynolds - his only clerical adornment a green stole around his neck - played as small a role as he could.'
    It seems to me that this unusual liturgy couldn't have involved the consecration (and therefore later desecration) of the Eucharist.
    More substantially, the disenfranchisement that generates such groups as 'Inclusive Catholics' is something that the Archbishop should respond to (rather than an animal's consumption of a host 'consecrated' by a laywoman.)
    If only the Archbishop actually engaged with members of groups like Inclusive Catholics to help restore unity to our Christian family, rather than shooting the messenger.

    Posted By: Shannon

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