IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
THERE HAS been a strong reaction to Vatican efforts to silence two Redemptorist priests over their liberal views.
Fr Tony Flannery, a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, has had his monthly column with Reality, the Redemptorists’ monthly magazine, discontinued at Vatican direction, while the magazine’s editor Fr Gerard Moloney can no longer write on certain issues. Both priests hold liberal views on contraception, celibacy and women priests.
Fr Kevin Hegarty, who was moved in 1994 to a Kilmore Erris parish on Mayo’s Atlantic coast by the Catholic bishops because of his liberal views, has described as “quite shocking” Vatican treatment of the two priests. When he heard the news first he thought it “some gauche April Fool’s joke”, he said yesterday.
He knows Fr Flannery as “very sincere, with a creative approach to ministry”, and “a loyal dissenter from official decisions” in Rome.
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