1]As his curate I WAS TOTALLY UNAWARE OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR-ALREADY COMMITTED BY HIM MONTHS BEFORE MY APPOINTMENT TO HIS PARISH
2] There was tension between us as I was a papist and he a liberal
3 After 6 months, I WAS moved out by Cardinal Clancy RIP
4 THE PP continued to reign
5 I was sent to randwick north parish with faculties but forbidden exercise public ministry
6 Meanwhile unbeknown to me clergy abuse was rampant in the Sydney metropolitancy
7Media reported events ad infra
The Sydney Morning Herald
'HERO' PRIEST STRIPPED OF ROLES
Author: By DEBRA JOPSON
Date: 02/08/1994
Words: 590
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Section: News and Features
Page: 4
A Catholic priest who helped bring the gangland murderer John "Chow" Hayes back to the Church before his death last year and who was described yesterday as a "hero" among the Croatian community has been stripped of his power to perform public priestly and pastoral duties.
Father John George, who by order of the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Edward Clancy, can only say Mass alone in his room in the presbytery at St Margaret Mary Catholic Centre in North Randwick, claimed yesterday he was under "glorified house arrest".
Although he can move about as he pleases, he said he was using that term because he could not go out and minister to parishioners, celebrate Mass in public, or perform baptisms, weddings or funerals.
Officially in a state known as "refusal of ministry", a friend yesterday described it as "ecclesiastic prison".
The vice-president of the Croatian World Congress of Australia, Miss Filomena Palaric, said yesterday many were "very upset" as word spread among the 80,000-strong Croatian community in Sydney.
Father George, 50, had become "a hero" to many Sydney Croatians because they had packed St Joachim's Church in Lidcombe during the war in their homeland for his special vigils and Masses every Tuesday.
More recently, he was parish assistant at St Joseph's in Belmore. A month ago, Cardinal Clancy informed him of his reduced priestly status by letter.
The reasons given were vague, according to Father George, but related to his "style of ministry".
"The general accusations made against me are that I correct people," he said.
"If you were to ban a parish priest for some temperamental difficulty, surely you would have to ban large numbers."
He believed the real reason for his reduced status was "theological politics".
Describing himself as "radically orthodox", he is a stickler for tradition who insists priests should wear vestments to celebrate Mass and agrees with the Pope's recent letter saying only men can be ordained.
"For over 20 years I have proclaimed the Catholic doctrine and I am very loyal to the Holy Father and I have been critical from the pulpit and in the media of heresy. Therefore I have ruffled the feathers of the libbers, the modernists and the prospective heretics," he said.
He believed he had created a dilemma for the Archbishop.
"If you are trying to run an archdiocese with varying factions and, for example, women's ordination questions, liturgical questions and a tension over moral issues, the last thing you want is an outspoken, no-holds-barred type of priest."