Silenced Irish Priest Tony Flannery to Tour US

By Dennis Coday
National Catholic Reporter
September 25, 2014

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/silenced-irish-priest-tour-usa

Last year, a coalition of Catholic progressive and reform organization sponsored "The Catholic Tipping Point: Conversations," a 15-city tour featuring Austrian Fr. Helmut Schuller, who gained international attention in 2011 for his "Call to Disobedience."

This year, the tour is back, and the featured speaker is Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery, founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland. He has been a popular writer and speaker in Ireland and has publicly questioned official church teaching on celibacy for priests, contraception, homosexuality and women's ordination.

For most of 2012, Flannery was forbidden to minister as a priest as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reviewed his writing. In January 2013, he said he was threatened with excommunication unless he made a clear and public statement -- preapproved by the doctrinal congregation -- fully supporting official church teaching.

According to tour organizers: "Fr. Tony will tour the U.S. this fall, from October 22 - November 18, 2014, visiting 18 cities and speaking with Catholic laity and leadership on topics of women in the Church, the future of ministry, the problem with infallibility, and the sexual teachings of the Catholic Church. "

Visit the website for more details: www.catholictippingpoint.org

Here's the tour cities in chronological order:

Oct. 22: Washington, D.C.

Oct. 23: Baltimore

Oct. 24: Philadelphia

Oct. 25: New York City

Oct. 26: West Warwick, R.I.

Oct. 28: Boston

Oct. 29: Syracuse, N.Y.

Nov. 1: Cleveland

Nov. 3: Detroit

Nov. 5: Minneapolis

Nov. 8: Memphis, Tenn. (Call to Action Conference)

Nov. 10: Sarasota, Fla.

Nov. 12: San Antonio

Nov. 13: St. Louis

Nov. 15: Phoenix

Nov. 16: Sacramento, Calif.

Nov. 18: Portland, Ore.

Nov. 19: Seattle

The Catholic Tipping Point partners are:

American Catholic Council

Call To Action

Catholics For Choice

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

CORPUS

DignityUSA

FutureChurch

National Coalition of American Nuns

New Ways Ministry

Quixote Center

Women's Ordination Conference