Vatican Upbraided Irish Priest for Reformist Views: Report

Straits Times
April 11, 2012

www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_787668.html

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - An Irish priest was summoned to Rome and asked to retire to a monastery in March after he voiced views in favour of liberal reforms for the Catholic Church, a website reported on Wednesday.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the main guardian of the Church's dogma, did not reportedly take kindly to Father Tony Flannery's pronouncements on contraception, the marriage of priests and women's ordination.

The Vatican Insider website, citing informed sources, said the 65-year-old priest, one of the founders of the Association of Irish Priests, was called back to Rome by the superior general of his Redemptorist order, Father Michael Brehl.

The alleged incident happened in March before the Vatican published a report on its eight-month inspection of the Irish Catholic Church following a wave of thousands of abuse scandals that has badly shaken faith in the Church.