‘Don’t move our priest’, say angry parishioners

By Kath Gannaway
MEMBERS OF St Brigid’s Catholic Parish in Healesville, Marysville and Yarra Glen have slammed the lack of consultation by the leader of the Melbourne Archdiocese, Archbishop Denis Hart, over the transfer of parish priest Fr John Madden.
The popular Irish priest, who has been at St Brigid’s for just a year, has been transferred to Seaford and will leave the valley parish the beginning of December.
In letters and a petition pleading with Archbishop Hart to reconsider his decision, angry parishioners have labelled the process – which allows for no input from parishioners – as corporate, shortsighted and uncaring.
In a letter to the Archbishop, parishioner Paul O’Dwyer of Healesville voiced fears the move was part of a plan to amalgamate the parish with St Patrick’s in Lilydale.
The Archbishop visited the parish recently, in part as a response to the barrage of letters, phone calls and the petition, and said parishioners had been “subjected to much suffering and disillusionment due to poor decisions about placement of priests in our parish made by the archdiocese over the last 15 years”.
During the visit he confirmed Fr Madden would go.
Fr Madden’s only sin, according to parishioners who spoke to the Mail, is that he is just too good at his job.
His outstanding ability as a manager and to reach out to people, they said, sealed his fate.
Archbishop Hart told the Mail he had consulted with his advisers and that ultimately under church processes the bishop had the role of appointing priests.
He said the advice was that Seaford’s needs were greater and Fr Madden had been unanimously recommended for the job.
“Fr Madden is a very gifted and very competent priest with an ability to reach out,” Archbishop Hart said.
Marysville parishioner Elaine Postlethwaite said she was angry there was no consultation.
“Perhaps the Archbishop should have visited the parish before making that decision and talked to a few people,” she said. “It makes it difficult when you want to go to a higher authority and there isn’t one.”
Another parishioner, Joseph Vanderzee, said the decision gave no thought to parishioners’ needs or wants.
“Everybody wants Father to stay but they just treat us like primary school kids,” he said. “You can’t do that to people now. They are educated and informed and you just can’t push them around.”
In his reply to Mr O’Dwyer’s concerns about amalgamation, Archbishop Hart said he had no specific goal other than to provide for the care of the 1,129,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese in the best way possible.
Archbishop Hart told the Mail he would not rule out amalgamation, saying he intended to provide a priest to the parish.
“I will do the very best we can with the priests available,” he said. Meanwhile, Fr Madden is resigned to the decision, saying the Archbishop had tough choices to make in the face of a declining number of priests.
But he said he would have liked to stay longer.
“The people are second to none. I can’t fault them,” Fr Madden said. “They have been behind me 100 per cent and that’s my sadness.”