Flannery’s censure causing frustration

Frustration over the plight of censured priest Fr Tony Flannery appears to be mounting within his Redemptorist order, writes Sarah Mac Donald.

Last week, at a public meeting in Dublin on church reform addressed by Fr Flannery, Fr Sean Duggan, 34, the youngest Redemptorist in the Irish province, called on the Redemptorist authorities to restore Fr Flannery to full priestly ministry without any conditions. He also demanded that they issue an apology to him for the way in which he has been treated by the Vatican authorities.

Fr Flannery was censured by the Vatican in 2012 and forbidden to minister as a priest over what the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith considered heretical views on the Eucharist and priesthood. “I no longer believe that the priesthood as we currently have it in the Church originated with Jesus,” he wrote in 2010.

For his part, Fr Flannery said that even if the Vatican did allow him back into ministry, he wouldn’t accept unless all sanctions were lifted against Fr Sean Fagan, a Marist priest, who was silenced after questioning elements of church teaching. Frs Flannery and?Fagan are two of six Irish priests to be censured in recent years.

A number of Redemptorists have written to the order’s superior general, Fr Michael Brehl, to express their support for Fr Flannery.