IRELAND
The Irish Times
MARIE O’HALLORAN
‘VISION’ SESSION: CATHOLIC priests have “earned the right” to speak out, having been through so much in the past number of years, the conference organised by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) heard.
Fr Tony Butler SMA, Blackrock, Co Cork, said people speak out at times of crisis when they might not otherwise do, and Catholic priests were in a similar situation and could speak out and “say what we want”. He told the more than 1,000 people at the conference: “We have earned the right.”
Fr Butler said “no word of God is God’s last word” but because of fear that “non-conforming thought” was growing internationally, the church had reacted with a “colonial instinct for retribution” that was “well oiled”.
During a session at the conference entitled Vision, he said “believing that all things worth knowing are already known in life, church and society, creates a cultured ignorance which guarantees that mediocrity becomes a virtue”.
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