IRELAND
Irish Independent
Tony Flannery is an unlikely heretic. An Irish Redemptorist priest, he is now being threatened with excommunication from his own church.
So who cares? According to some media reports last week, a new survey of Irish public opinion ranks religion last among 119 priorities. But the survey and the reports about it were misleading.
Rome has let Flannery know that his opinions on the priesthood, and on the role of the laity, “are clearly contrary to the defined teaching of the Church” (as Rome sees it). He was stripped of his column in the Redemptorists’ Reality magazine, forbidden to administer the sacraments and now has one last chance to recant before being excluded from the institution to which he has given his life.
Some have linked his predicament to Enda Kenny’s criticism of the Vatican. Flannery’s brother Frank has long been a leading light in Fine Gael. Rome was not happy with the Taoiseach’s criticisms, and it was whispered by some that Fr Flannery had a hand in Kenny’s controversial speech of 2011. When Fr Flannery first heard that whisper, he thought it was a joke. He says: “I had absolutely nothing to do with the speech. I keep well away from politics in my profession.”
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