Ned Kelly farewelled in Catholic mass in Victoria

[rug]

Published: January 21, 2013

Hundreds of Ned Kelly's descendants mourned the bushranger at a traditional Catholic mass last week in the regional Victorian town of Wangaratta, 132 years after his hanging, reports the Daily Telegraph.

With Kelly's remains in a coffin, St Patrick's Church parish priest Monsignor John White told mourners he'd received offensive phone calls and emails leading up to the service when it was revealed that he was to deliver the outlaw's liturgy.

But as a baptised Catholic, he said, Kelly was entitled to the dignified burial he was denied following his hanging at in Melbourne in 1880, when his decapitated body was entombed in the dirt with no family members present.

"Today, we're righting that wrong," Monsignor White said.

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=34617

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_kelly