Priest Denies He's Being Forced out by Vatican

By Sarah Macdonald
Irish Independent
August 10, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/priest-denies-hes-being-forced-out-by-vatican-29488163.html

Fr Iggy O'Donovan

A POPULAR priest who is to leave his post as prior of an Augustinian order has denied he is being forced out by the Vatican.

Fr Iggy O'Donovan  was responding to claims by the lay reform group 'We Are Church Ireland', which suggested he was being forced to take leave of absence by the Vatican's watchdog on orthodoxy.

However, Fr O'Donovan (56) told the Irish Independent he was not stepping back from the priesthood, he was taking a sabbatical next month as his two terms as prior in Drogheda, Co Louth, were coming to an end.

He also rejected suggestions that he had meetings with Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, in whose diocese he serves, over articles appearing in an Augustinian newsletter.

Cardinal Brady's spokesman said he had "no information" about these meetings.

The head of the Augustinians in Ireland, Fr John Hennebry, said Fr O'Donovan's role as prior had come to a natural end.