IRELAND
Galway Advertiser
By Martina Nee
The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has expressed its support of Fr Tony Flannery, branding the intervention of the Vatican to effectively silence the Athenry-based Redemptorist cleric as “ill-advised” and “unfair”.
The group, which represents more than 800 priests, issued its statement of solidarity this week following events which saw Fr Flannery, a founding member of the association established less than two years ago, placed under investigation by the Vatican following his outspoken views on issues such as the ending of celibacy, opening up the Church to lay people, the ordination of women, the Church’s ban on contraception, as well as his frustration with the way the Church hierarchy operates. The Vatican has also ordered the discontinuation of Fr Flannery’s column in the religious magazine Reality, a column which he has written for the past 14 years. It is understood that a second priest, Fr Gerard Maloney, the magazine’s editor has also been banned from writing on various topics.
Pope Benedict, in the Holy Thursday homily at St Peter’s Basilica, denounced disobedience warning that the Church will not tolerate priests speaking out against Catholic teaching and chastised any priests who sought the ordination of women or the abolition of priest celibacy.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.