Ireland: Rebel Priest Defies Silence Imposed on Him by the Vatican

By Alessandro Speciale
Vatican Insider
January 1, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/irlanda-ireland-irlanda-21574/

Fr. Tony Flannery

Tony Flannery, the head of Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests, has rejected Rome’s request for him to sign a “mea culpa” declaration. “Freedom of conscience comes first,” he insists

An Irish priest has decided to defy the silence imposed on him by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because he considers that giving up “on freedom of thought, freedom of speech and most especially freedom of conscience is too high a price” for him “to pay to be allowed minister in today’s church.”

The 66 year old priest, Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist, is a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, an independent association made up of over 850 priests that was created in response to the indignation shown towards the Church’s handling of the paedophilia scandal.

In a long open letter published in The Irish Times, Flannery explained he risked excommunication and dismissal from his congregation if he did not agree to sign a document that reaffirms the Catholic Church’s doctrine on women priests and homosexuality, amongst other things.

Last April, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered the superior general of the Redemptorists, Fr. Michael Brehl, to suspend Flannery from the ministry and ensure he stopped writing articles and did not give any interviews to the press.

As the priest says in his letter, “I had been writing for various religious magazines for more than 20 years without any problem. But suddenly last February I was informed by my Redemptorist superiors that I was in serious trouble over some things I had written. I was summoned to Rome, not to the Vatican, which to this day has not communicated with me directly, but to the head of the Redemptorists.”

The Vatican’s doctrinal censorship honed in on one article published in Irish religious magazine Reality in 2010. In the article, Flannery expressed his doubts about the divine origin of the hierarchical structure of priesthood in the Church.

 After several months of silence, the priest rote the letter, announcing his decision not to accept the conditions Rome had presented to him. “I gradually became aware that the CDF continually raised the bar, until it got to the point where I could no longer negotiate. I was faced with a choice. 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,” the priest wrote.

Fr. Flannery said Rome asked him “to put [his] name to a document that would be a lie, and would impugn my integrity and my conscience, or I face the reality of never again ministering as a priest.” In order to address these personal problems the Redemptorist decided to withdraw temporarily as leader of the Association of Catholic Priests.

The Irish priest gained the support of his religious order, the Redemptorists, who issued a statement saying: "It is of immense regret that some structures or processes of dialogue have not yet been found in the Church which have a greater capacity to engage  with challenging voices from among God’s people, while respecting the key  responsibility and central role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” The order’s Irish branch published a statement saying that “although not all Redemptorists would accept Fr. Flannery's views on all matters, we do understand and support his efforts to listen carefully to and at times to articulate the views of people he encounters in the course of his ministry.”

Flannery, who described the actions against him as “frightening, disproportionate and reminiscent of the Inquisition,” also has the support of the Association of Catholic Priests and Fr. Helmut Schueller, one of the leaders of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, which are also asking for reforms in the Church.