BishopAccountability.org

Sacked Bishop Bill Morris to campaign for ordination of married men

By Ross Peake
Canberra Times
November 16, 2014

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/sacked-bishop-bill-morris-to-campaign-for-ordination-of-married-men-20141116-11nmm2.html

Former bishop William Morris.

Sacked Catholic Bishop Bill Morris will campaign for the ordination of married men, during a book signing tour to Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne.

He says he was treated unfairly and deprived of natural justice by the late Pope Benedict who had a "closed door approach" during a private meeting in Rome.

"I experienced a monologue, there was definitely no dialogue," Bishop Morris said from Brisbane on Sunday.

"My disappointment was that he [Pope Benedict] didn't listen to me.

"He repeated exactly what had been given to him and what was given to him had been wrong.

"The facts were wrong, the interpretation was wrong and therefore his take on that, accusing me of doing something that I didn't do on the grounds of the advice he was given [was wrong]."

The controversial cleric was rushed to hospital in Brisbane with pneumonia in June on the morning he was due to fly to Canberra to launch his book – Benedict, Me and the Cardinals Three.

He said he was now well enough to do the national tour where he will speak out about his treatment.

He was forced out of his position in Toowoomba in 2011 after a group of conservative "temple police" parishioners complained directly to the Vatican about his preaching which included discussion about ordaining women and married men. The book notes that in 1998 Pope John Paul II effectively made it an offence for the faithful to discuss the possibility of the ordination of women.

Bishop Morris had raised issues including married clergy, female priests and the possibility of recognising Protestant orders, in an Advent pastoral letter in 2006 that discussed the declining number of priests in far-flung parishes like Toowoomba.

He was told in a meeting with Pope Benedict that it was "God's will that you resign".

He says under pressure, he agreed to take early retirement but was still active in the Toowoomba and Brisbane dioceses.

He told Pope Benedict during the meeting in 2009 of a sex abuse case at a Toowoomba school but the Pope dismissed the bishop's request to stay at his post to deal with it.

Bishop Morris said the atmosphere within the Catholic Church was changing under Pope Francis who encouraged dialogue.

"I'd say in the process of dialogue the truth [about me] would have come out," he said.

Bishop Morris will speak at the Centre for Christianity and Culture at Barton at 7.30pm on Monday, December 1.

 

Contact: ross.peake@canberratimes.com.au




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