IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, January 20

Controversial Irish cleric Father Tony Flannery is to defy the Vatican and break his silence on the campaign against him by Catholic Church authorities.

Father Flannery was silenced by the church last year over his advocacy of more open discussion on church teachings.

The New York Times reports that the 66-year-old was suspended by the Vatican after a series of public interviews.

He was told that he would only be allowed to return to ministry only if he agreed to write, sign and publish a statement agreeing, among other things, that women should never be ordained as priests and that he would adhere to church orthodoxy on matters like contraception and homosexuality.