Edward Phillip "Ted" Kennedy (27 January 1931 – 17 May 2005) was an Australian priest and activist. He was best known as the parish priest of St Vincent's Roman Catholic church in the Sydney inner-city suburb of Redfern. He commenced his ministry there in 1971. The Redfern Catholic presbytery under Kennedy was an open house for the many indigenous members of his parish and beyond. Early life and ordination Kennedy was born on 27 January 1931, the son of Jack and Peg Kennedy. His father was a general practitioner in Marrickville where Kennedy grew up and gained a Catholic education. He entered St Columba's College, Springwood, to study for the Catholic priesthood at the age of 16. He later continued his studies at St Patrick's Seminary, Manly.Though a cleric himself, he professed to be strongly anticlerical - an attitude he attributed to his mother, who disdained many clerics because of their pomposity and self-importance. He was a harsh critic of the Tridentine seminary system and its objectives, to which he had been subjected, and lamented the lifelong bad effects it had on so many of his brother priests. Post ordination After his ordination and before he went to Redfern, Kennedy worked in the Sydney parish of Ryde, where he sought to improve the standard of liturgy and music. He later served at Punchbowl, Elizabeth Bay and Neutral Bay parishes. For seven years he was also chaplain to the students at the University of Sydney. From 1957 to 1962, with Roger Pryke and others, he was a participant in a series of lectures for nuns at Sancta Sophia College within Sydney University. The lecture team included Bede Heather, Grove Johnson, Brian and Paul Crittenden, Terry Johns, Ron Hine, David Coffey, Mary Lewis and Mary Shanahan. These lectures introduced the sisters to the coming reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Kennedy arrived in Redfern in 1971, appointed to head a team ministry by the then Archbishop of Sydney, James Freeman (later a cardinal), with colleagues John Butcher and Fergus Breslan. He served as parish priest in Redfern continuously under archbishops Edward Bede Clancy and George Pell. This remains unusual by contemporary diocesan standards which limit the duration of tenure. By 1974, Kennedy was the only priest at the Redfern parish. Work with Aboriginal people The Redfern area has a significant Aboriginal population. Kennedy was initially somewhat insensitive to Aboriginal Australians but over