IRELAND
U.S. Catholic

By Bryan Cones

Another priest bites the dust, or may soon: Father Tony Flannery, an Irish Redemptorist priest and founder of the Irish reform group the Association of Catholic Priests, has broken the silence demanded of him by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith by publishing an op-ed in the Irish Times. In it, Flannery chroncles his interactions with the Vatican through his Redemptorist order. The CDF’s terms were that Flannery no longer speak publicly about reform issues in the church, specifically, “Either I sign a statement, for publication, stating that I accepted teachings that I could not accept, or I would remain permanently banned from priestly ministry, and maybe face more serious sanctions. It is important to state clearly that these issues were not matters of fundamental teaching, but rather of church governance.”

Flannery doesn’t say specifically which church teaching he must sign…