Appeal to Pope over censured priest

Vatican procedures for dealing with censured priests need to be reformed, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which represents more than 1,000 Irish priests, has told Pope Francis.

In a letter the group said an injustice had been perpetrated against Fr Tony Flannery and that his treatment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) had damaged the Church’s reputation in Ireland. Fr Flannery was removed from priestly ministry and censured in 2012 for what the CDF considered heret­ical views on the Eucharist and priesthood.

Correspondence made public by the priests’ group reveals that its leadership wrote to Pope Francis in September asking the Pope to reverse the CDF judgement. They cited Francis’ own suggestion that in the event of receiving a reprimanding letter from the CDF, priests should read it, put it aside and continue with their daily ministry.

The letter criticised Fr Flannery’s treatment as “yet another example of a Church that is more concerned with doctrinal orthodoxy than with the compassion of Jesus Christ”.

It added: “It is also significant that the CDF has never communicated directly with Fr Flannery or afforded him an opportunity to explain his position and put the statements that the CDF objected to in the context in which they were written.”