IRELAND
BBC News

By Shane Harrison
BBC NI Dublin correspondent

The body that represents priests in Ireland has said it is disturbed over the Vatican’s silencing of one of its members for his liberal views.

The leaders of the 800-strong Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) have warned that forcing Father Tony Flannery, who is based in Athenry in County Galway, to stop writing for a Redemptorist Order magazine would fuel belief of a disconnect between Irish Catholics and Rome.

“We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members of the association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland,” the group said.

Fr Flannery, who has written on religious matters in the Redemptorist magazine for 14 years, is under investigation by the Vatican over his views, including an opposition to clerical celibacy.