Dublin, Vigil outside Nunciature to Protest Silencing of Irish Protest

Vatican Insider
April 28, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/ireland-dublin-14738/

Archbishop C.J. Brown (middle)

An Irish Catholic lay group will hold a silent vigil in front of the Holy See's Nunciature in Dublin on April 29 to express solidarity with Irish priests who have been "silenced" by the Vatican, and to ask for a revocation of these disciplinary measures and their replacement by dialogue

An Irish Catholic lay group, We are Church Ireland, is organizing a silent vigil outside the Holy See's Nunciature in Dublin on Sunday afternoon, April 29, to protest against the silencing of several Irish priests by the Vatican over the past two years. It is calling for the revoking of the disciplinary measures against them and the opening of a proper dialogue.

"We are very, very angry, indeed shocked, at the way the priests have been treated, and we want to express solidarity with our silenced priests", Brendan Butler, the group's spokesperson, told Vatican Insider. He said many religious women in Ireland are supporting their initiative.

The group, which has 200 members throughout the country, is targeting the papal Nunciature in Dublin for two reasons, he explained. First, it is the Vatican which ordered the silencing of the priests. Second, the new papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, worked in the doctrinal section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from 1994 until his arrival in Dublin "and so it is likely that he would have been involved, and certainly would have known what was happening", he said.

On Sunday, the group wants to give a letter to the Nuncio requesting the lifting of the disciplinary measures and the opening of a real dialogue, Butler stated.

At the vigil, the protestors will wear gags, painted in the Vatican's yellow and white colors, to symbolize the action taken by the CDF against the following four priests, and others it is not naming at their request:

- Sean Fagan, 84, a Marist priest and well known moral theologian who first ran into trouble in 2004 and was officially silenced on 1 March 2010 for some of his writings. Butler said he was then formally bound by the vow of obedience not to publish or speak his views and was told that if he informed the media he would lose his priestly faculties and be dismissed from the Marist Order. "Fr. Sean's life was shattered by this experience, he suffered greatly and his health deteriorated", Butler added.

- Owen O'Sullivan, a Capuchin, fell into trouble with the CDF early 2011 because of an article in 'The Furrow', an Irish Catholic journal, in which he called for a more tolerant attitude to homosexuality, and questioned the Church's teaching in this area. He must now submit all his writings to a censor before publication, according to Irish journalist Sarah Mac Donald who interviewed him for The Universe, a UK Catholic weekly.

-Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist and founder of the Association of Irish Priests and a popular retreat giver was silenced in March 2012 for expressing support for women's ordination, married priests, and a change in the Church's position on birth control. Last year he supported the Irish Prime Minister's attack on the Vatican over its failure to respond properly to the sexual abuse of minors by priests.

- Gerry Moloney, the Redemptorist editor of the magazine "Reality", ran into problems with the CDF in March 2012 for publishing theologically unorthodox articles. He cannot now write on such topics as women's ordination, marriage for priests and homosexuality, and must submit the magazine's articles to a censor prior to publication.

We are Church Ireland has criticized the lack of due process and the secrecy in the CDF's handling of all these cases, and said this way of acting is "unacceptable in our age."

The lay group has withheld the nam es of other priests who have been silenced, at their request, Butler said.

On April 26, however, a fifth name was revealed: Father Brian D'Arcy, 67, a member of the Passionist Order and the best known Irish priest journalist. He has been "censured" by the CDF for four articles he had written, Sarah Mac Donald reported in The Tablet, a UK Catholic weekly. This life-member of the Irish National Union of Journalists must now submit his writings and the texts of his radio broadcasts on topics regarding Church doctrine and morality to a censor before publication, she said.

In all the above cases, the practice adopted by the CDF has followed the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the 1997 CDF regulations for dealing with errors or heterodox opinions regarding Catholic doctrine and morals. Thus, the CDF Prefect, Cardinal William Levada, makes its concerns known to the head of the religious order to which the priest belongs and gives instructions on how to deal with the offending cleric. Secrecy is insisted on during the process, and the head of the order has to report-back to ensure the case has been resolved.

It is clear that the CDF, which "has the function of promoting and safeguarding doctrine on faith and morals throughout the Catholic world", has identified errors or opinions contrary to the faith in the writings or statements of these Irish priests. It began its crackdown in 2010, if not earlier, as the sex-abuse of minors by priests' scandal and the Vatican's role in dealing with it was making news headlines in Ireland.

The Summary of the Findings of the Visitation sent by Pope Benedict XVI to Ireland in 2011 in the wake of the sex-abuse scandal also reported the existence of "theological opinions" among priests, Religious and laity that are "at variance with" Catholic teaching, as well as "dissent from" that teaching. It said "this serious situation requires particular attention."

When those Findings were published on March 20, the CDF crackdown was already underway. Sources say many in Ireland – priests, religious and lay people - question the wisdom of this approach at this delicate moment in the history of the Irish Church. Speaking for We are Church Ireland, Butler told Vatican Insider, "We are not looking to create another Church, we just want dialogue!"