The great St Vincent's break-in (Australia)

[struggle4progress]

... Father Gerry Prindiville ... had come to Mass to find a huge mural had appeared overnight on the east wall of his church. As far as the embattled priest was concerned, this was not a miracle but a crime. "They must have broken in to do it," he told the Herald ...

The place was jubilant. St Vincent's Catholic church is contested ground and the old crowd - the Aborigines and the social justice mob - were out in force congratulating themselves on this wonderful jape at the expense of Cardinal George Pell's man sent three years ago to straighten out the parish ...

Planning had been going on for weeks. Once the scaffolding was wheeled into place by 1.30 on Saturday afternoon, the black and white team of painters took six hours to do the tree of hands and the animals - Griffo did the emu - and the lines from Pope John Paul II's famous 1986 speech in Alice Springs: "For thousands of years you, the Aboriginal people, have lived in this land with a culture that endures to this day …"

The paint was dry for yesterday's Mass celebrating the 20th anniversary of that speech and Father Frank Brennan - one of its authors - was on hand for the occasion. When he called on the Redfern congregation to stand and bless this "permanent" memorial to Aboriginal spirituality, Father Prindiville's arms stayed tightly by his side ...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-great-st-vincents-breakin/2006/07/30/1154198012604.html