Thanks to Clare in the comments for pointing out this story:
I think the situation is that a parish that was, in the words of one, "free-wheeling" and dominated by a sympathy with the cause of the Aboriginal peoples was put under the care of a priest from the Neo-Catechumenal Way, and tensions ensued. (Which turns on its head the views of many that the NC is all about being free-wheeling, itself). This past weekend, the Aboriginal contigent took its stand:
IT WAS a big day at St Vincent’s Redfern yesterday, but Father Gerry Prindiville sat grim-faced through the celebrations.
He had come to Mass to find a huge mural had appeared overnight on the east wall of his church. As far as the embattled priest was concerned, this was not a miracle but a crime. "They must have broken in to do it," he told the Herald.
"It concerns me that someone can break into my church."
The place was jubilant. St Vincent’s Catholic church is contested ground and the old crowd – the Aborigines and the social justice mob – were out in force congratulating themselves on this wonderful jape at the expense of Cardinal George Pell’s man sent three years ago to straighten out the parish.
"We were reclaiming the church for the Aboriginal people," explained Griffo, one of the culprits. "We had to sort of sneak in, not let the priests know what we were doing." He insists entry was not forced. "One of the sisters came and climbed through the window."
Planning had been going on for weeks. Once the scaffolding was wheeled into place by 1.30 on Saturday afternoon, the black and white team of painters took six hours to do the tree of hands and the animals – Griffo did the emu – and the lines from Pope John Paul II’s famous 1986 speech in Alice Springs: "For thousands of years you, the Aboriginal people, have lived in this land with a culture that endures to this day …"
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