Catholic belief

In addition, I know of no Catholic or other Christian who believes it is possible to create the Kingdom of God on earth.

I accept that this is a core atheist or humanist belief - having removed God or the possibility of God from that ancient and primary longing of human beings for the ultimate truth and purpose of existence, the need to create a kingdom of perfection in this world is inevitable.

It is not however a Christian belief.

Like Father Kennedy himself, Mr MacLennan appears to be making the mistake of attempting to mold the Gospel account of Christ to fit his own political agenda.

But by all accounts he, (Archbishop Bathersby) seemingly not the bravest of men, has been pushed by the far right of the Church. Possibly an Opus Dei cell is at work somewhere in this matter.

Naturally, no tale of political martyrdom would be complete without a good conspiracy theory! Unfortunately, in this case it is patently unnecessary.

The views Archbishop Bathersby has put forward are orthodox, uncontroversial and widespread among Catholics of all political persuasions.

"Far right" (read neo-Nazi) class enemies of darkness make for a great movie plot but do very little to explain the current stand-off.

Incidentally, in contrast to Father Kennedy who has not had the courage of his convictions to leave the Church and rely on his resources to commence his own religious movement elsewhere, Archbishop Bathersby has shown a great deal of stoicism in his attempts to find some common ground whereby Father Kennedy and his congregation could remain within the mainstream church.

Simply ignoring the matter and avoiding the confrontation would seem more likely the actions of someone lacking bravery.

The parish priest Peter Kennedy is a classic liberal intellectual who has championed a wide range of good causes - indigenous rights, gay rights, women’s rights and so on.

This novel description has persisted throughout the mainstream media as well as in Mr MacLennan's article.