Brisbane's rogue Catholic community and its rebel priest are still thriving almost one year after controversial practices within the church came to a head and its charismatic leader was threatened with excommunication.

In February Archbishop John Bathersby dismissed Father Peter Kennedy from his role at the eclectic inner city parish, St Mary's South Brisbane, after he refused to change his ways and conform to traditions of the Catholic Church.

Fr Kennedy initially defied his sacking and continued to conduct weekly masses in which he would contradict core tenets of the faith - he allowed women to preach, blessed gay couples, performed illegitimate baptisms and questioned the divinity of Jesus.

After lengthy negotiations between the Church and St Mary's, Fr Kennedy was forced to leave Church property - and it seems most of his congregation have followed.

The group, which now calls itself St Mary's Community in Exile, holds weekly gatherings in a building only several hundred metres from its old site.

Despite the relocation, little has changed for St Mary's.

At the weekend launch of a book which documents the saga, hundreds turned out to show their support, saying the community is as strong as ever.

And the rebellious Fr Kennedy is still challenging the Church, attracting an audience of about 500 every Sunday.

Fr Kennedy says the Catholic Church is stuck in "medieval times".

"The Church wants you to pray, pay and obey," he said. "They still will not let women, half the world, take a part in the authority of the Church.

"They argue that it's because Jesus didn't choose women as apostles, and Jesus didn't ordain women at the Last Supper, but it's just nonsense, it's just fabricated nonsense.

"And as a woman how could you possibly believe in the virgin birth? The virgin birth means that this God up there in the clouds impregnated this virgin Mary.

"Even the concept of God up there in the clouds, watching everything we do and if you step out of line you're going to hell, has been skittled by modern science."

He believes the Church is unjust and says its teachings on creation are also outdated.

"The reality is that the Christian religion evolved in a world view of a three-tiered universe - heaven, Earth and hell - where the Earth was thought to be flat, the Earth was the centre of the universe," he said.

"But we now live in a world where science has shown us we are anything but a three-tiered universe, that has changed the way in which humanity can begin to understand itself.

"The whole business of evolution against God creating the human species... well I can't believe in the creation and neither can science.

"I think it's much more wonderful to believe in evolution, it's such a mystery, it's so wonderful and it's breathtaking, but that doesn't destroy my faith in God - in whatever God is."

Fr Kennedy still sees himself as a catholic - with a "small c".

"I see myself as a small 'c' catholic, meaning inclusive of all people no matter what their gender, denomination or status in life," he said.

"A lot of people in the census who put themselves down as Catholic would probably consider themselves as small 'c' catholic rather than Roman Catholic because they no longer come to church at all and they don't believe what the Church teaches any more."

Despite his radical "catholic" beliefs, Fr Kennedy believes the Church is in error, not St Mary's.

He says the Church has not been faithful to the Second Vatican Council.

"The Church today ignores the thrust of the Council, which was about engaging with the modern world," he said.

"We are not engaging with it at all and that's obvious - people are just walking away from the church - 13 per cent go to mass on a Sunday and in 10 years time it'll be down to 5 per cent.

"If the Second Vatican Council had been allowed to see the light of day, St Mary's would have been typical of the Church throughout the world.

"So in many ways the Church has not been faithful to the teachings of a council, and that's very serious, I think rather the Church is in error."

'Our beloved heretic'

At the weekend book launch of Peter Kennedy: The Man Who Threatened Rome, Fr Kennedy was referred to as the community's "beloved heretic".

Hundreds gathered for the occasion at the West End Uniting Church hall.

Kerry Lawrence, who has been part of St Mary's for 19 years, says the conflict over the past 12 months has strengthened the community.

"It was very painful for a lot of people but we're stronger than we were before because we're more aware of what we are about and what we believe and what we want," she said.

She says St Mary's is an open and accepting community.

"We're not asked to believe anything hard to believe ... people come from all over Brisbane to St Mary's because there's not another church like it," she said.

Michael Kelly, also at the launch, has been with St Mary's for 18 years and says it is a community which cherishes spirituality.

"It introduces you to a whole host of thinking that you wouldn't get normally in another parish," he said.

"There's a strong link between the community that's rather unique... it's a vibrant one which very much encompasses justice and equality - and people live that and they believe it."

Allan Allaway has been with St Mary's for 25 years and says he attended the launch to support Fr Kennedy.

"As far as I'm concerned he's been shafted after 30 years of loyal service to the Catholic Church," he said.

The book was officially launched by The Age journalist and Melbourne author Martin Flannagan, who contributed a biographical piece on Fr Kennedy.

Flannagan says people should meet Fr Kennedy before casting judgement.

"Peter Kennedy is a seriously interesting man - to use a 60s term, he's out there," he said.

"I don't know what name to give the spirit that Peter Kennedy has carried in his life, but it's pretty obvious to me that he has carried one, and having met him I respect that spirit, and having gone to his church I respect that spirit."

In his speech, Flannagan said Fr Kennedy had no choice about the path he has taken.

"All of us eventually have to make a stand or lie down before what we think, what we know or what we believe is right or wrong," he said.

"Would we respect him more if he had adopted ways and manners contrary to those he practiced earlier? I certainly wouldn't, I would think him a man of little inner belief and little inner worth.

"If you believe what you say and do in public you have to stand by it... I think he's a man of his word, someone who stands for something, something which by any objective measure is good."

After Fr Kennedy's biography, the book contains a compilation of 11 parishioners' reflections written by Melbourne writer Michelle Gierck.

Australian Catholic University's professor of theology Neil Ormerod also contributed to the book, but from a more critical perspective.

Professor Ormerod says Fr Kennedy is quite entitled to his opinions, but that they are not technically Catholic or Christian.

Professor Ormerod particularly critiques Fr Kennedy's assertion that Jesus is not divine.

"While he's quite entitled to believe whatever he wants to believe, you can't then claim that what you believe is Christian just because you want it to be, and a number of things he put forward were not Christian positions," he said.

"This is a theological judgement being made about what is constituent of Catholic faith, it's not about what people may or may not happen to believe in the pews, but what has been taught and has continued to be taught from the beginning.

"So it's not just where popular opinion lies, this is what the Church has at various times defined as its core belief."

Professor Ormerod says Fr Kennedy's behaviour it is not what the Church would expect from a Catholic priest.

"Lots of people have stood by their beliefs and walked out of the Catholic Church, but it seems to me he has wanted to stand by his beliefs and remain Catholic, which isn't coherent," he said.

He says the book's title - The Man Who Threatened Rome - is an overstatement.

"I don't know that Rome was all that threatened, I think they were just trying to say 'this isn't Catholic'... I think the Church was just protecting its brand," he said.

"It's a dispute that hit the media and attracted a lot of media attention, it plays into a lot of prejudices that people have against organised religion.

"The media could portray Peter Kennedy as a little Aussie battler against the big bad bureaucrats, but I don't think that's an accurate portrayal."

'Freedom and joy'

Fr Kennedy believes the Catholic Church is doomed.

"The Church constantly needs to be reformed and they've missed the boat on Vatican Two to their own detriment, and I don't think they're going to recover," he said.

"What is necessary today is a Vatican Three to look at issues of faith and beliefs, but I don't think it can or will happen.

"Though Catholics believe all their lives the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, I think the Church is certainly finished, it's had it."

As for St Mary's, he says its future is irrelevant.

"The prophetic voices of theologians and reformers have always been repressed and persecuted by the Church... our community is a prophetic community and it got the axe," he said.

"What's important is that while we're still alive, religion is about trying to give meaning to people's lives, so we might serve a purpose for five years or two years or 10 years - who knows what will happen to this community - but it doesn't matter because we're just a fallible community of people."

He says the events of the past year have allowed him to see beyond Catholicism.

"Until being dismissed and literally thrown out, it wasn't until that actually happened, that I really began to sense a great freedom from the control of the Catholic Church," he said.

"You always were fearful that if you said something a bit controversial it would be reported to the Archbishop, which is what happened, so there's a great sense of freedom from that imprisonment."

He says with that freedom, comes a sense of joy.

"Suddenly I don't believe any more in the claims of the Catholic Church for being the only way to salvation, and that every other faith and every other denomination is deficient - that's what the present Pope says - so personally there's a great sense of freedom and with that comes a sense of joy."