IRELAND
The Irish Catholic
When I heard that the Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery was under some kind of Vatican probe, I thought it was an April fools day joke. It couldnt be true, my thinking went, because such a move would be seen as unnecessarily interventionist, and given his position with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), it would inevitably be seen as something more than just an examination of theological orthodoxy.
And all respect to Fr Tony and Reality magazine, but Ive never met anyone who said to me did you see what Fr Flannery wrote in Reality?
As a Vatican II liberal, Fr Flannerys views are well known and hardly startling. So I assumed the Vatican, so lucky to recover some goodwill after the Taoiseachs speech last year, would show prudence and not shoot itself in the foot. I was wrong.
Surely there is a more transparent and gentle way of dealing with priests who express a contrary but sincerely held view on Church teaching?
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