Most of Melbourne's Catholic priests are more disturbed by the Pope's attitude to sex issues than by unmarried couples or homosexuals living together, according to a leading Melbourne priest.
They believe the Pope's "excessive" devotion to Mary undermines the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that bishops are out of touch and "under the thumb of Rome", according to Father Eric Hodgens of St Bede's in North Balwyn.
Writing in the independent internet magazine OnlineCatholics, he says that older priests ordained between 1955 and 1975, who form up to 70 per cent of the Melbourne total, "do not like the strong personality cult of the Pope and resent the bishops' sycophantic style of quoting him incessantly".
"Most of them are no longer committed to the old taboos on sexuality. Most do not believe that couples living together are doing something very wrong," he says. "Most are happy to have homosexual couples living lives of commitment. They find the Roman heavy insistence on these issues obsessive and wonder why."
Father Hodgens says these priests believe that the clericalism and triumphalism abandoned after the 1960s Vatican II council are being reinstated, and that both Rome and many local bishops have abandoned consultative decision-making.
"Groups like the Legionaries of Christ, Opus Dei and the Neo-Catechumenate are being promoted as the salvation of a collapsing church, while they see these 'new movements' as narrow, clerical, sectarian and, worst of all, subverting parish life."
These priests see the Pope's devotion to Mary as "excessive, pietistic and detrimental to placing Jesus Christ in the unquestioned centre of the Christian message of salvation", he says.
Father Hodgens said yesterday he was taking up issues raised by two senior Melbourne priests in December, when Father Len Thomas of Ivanhoe West and Father Peter Foley of Belmont called Melbourne's church leadership dictatorial, remote and lacking compassion.
He said not every priest aged 55 to 75 would agree on every point of his analysis - for example, a large majority would disagree with the official ban on contraception, while more would be disturbed by couples living together - but most shared the overall outlook.
"The younger guys have become much more cultic. They go back to the Roman collar and are preoccupied with the Mass and sacraments. That group between 55 and 75 were ordained to be pastoral men," he says.
"The bishops themselves are in a real bind. They virtually can't go against Vatican policy but if they don't they will be landed with an almost intractable problem. I suspect some are hoping things will hold off until they get to retirement age."
Melbourne Vicar-General Les Tomlinson said yesterday that Father Hodgens' account was highly speculative, and he doubted that the numbers were accurate.
He said the church leadership had to be faithful to the Gospel of Christ, and the truth of the Gospel was the impetus rather than consensus of popular opinion.
Monsignor Tomlinson said he did not doubt that the priests represented by Father Hodgens were motivated by the Gospel, but they seemed to imply that prevalent behaviour, rather than the Gospel, should determine what the church proclaimed.