This represents a lot of priests in Ireland.  I'm glad to see a response.

(More to come in the next post). 

Priests warn Vatican over move to censor Flannery

Monday, April 09, 2012 - 02:10 PM

An 800-strong group of Irish priests has said it is disturbed over the  Vatican's silencing of one of its members for his liberal views.
The  Association of Catholic Priests has warned that forcing Father Tony Flannery to  stop writing for a Redemptorist magazine will fuel belief of a disconnect  between Irish Catholics and Rome.
"We believe that such an approach, in  its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members  of the association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present  pastoral context in Ireland," the group said.
"We wish to make clear our  profound view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and  unwise."
Fr Flannery, a founder of the association, has had his monthly  column with the religious publication Reality pulled on orders from  Rome.
A second priest, Father Gerard Moloney, the magazine's editor, has  been ordered to stop writing on certain issues.
Both priests hold liberal  views on contraception, celibacy and women priests.
At least a dozen  priests had already publicly declared support for Fr Flannery and Fr Moloney in  messages on the association's website.
In a strongly-worded statement,  the group said Fr Flannery's writings should not be seen as an attack on or  rejection of the fundamental teachings of the church but a reflection on issues  surfacing in parishes nationwide.
It said they also reject their  portrayal in some circles as a "small coterie of radical priests with a radical  agenda".
"Accordingly, we wish to register our extreme unease and  disquiet at the present development, not least the secrecy surrounding such  interventions and the questions about due process and freedom of conscience that  such interventions surface," the group said.
"At this critical juncture  in our history, the ACP believes that this form of intervention - what  Archbishop Diarmuid Martin recently called 'heresy-hunting' - is of no service  to the Irish Catholic Church and may have the unintended effect of exacerbating  a growing perception of a significant 'disconnect' between the Irish Church and  Rome."
Fr Flannery, who has written on religious matters in the  Redemptorist magazine for 14 years, is under investigation by the Vatican over  his views.
As well as expressing opposition to the church's ban on  contraception and women priests, Fr Flannery publicly backed Taoiseach Enda  Kenny's unprecedented attack on the Catholic hierarchy in the aftermath of the  Cloyne Report last year.
In a Holy Thursday homily at St Peter's Basilica  in Rome, Pope Benedict warned that the church will not tolerate priests speaking  out against Catholic teaching.

Read more: www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/irela...

Hewy

thanks for the posts.

I suppose there's little really new in all of that.  Benedict and his predecessor remain invincibly obstinant in their personal beliefs, and they demand radical obedience to their beliefs.  I find the use of the term "radical" to be most interesting in all of this.

We hear, for example, about the "radical" message of the Gospels, and how this radical message of hope can and should change the world.  And indeed, it has over time.  Yet Benedict takes the concept and flips it, demanding fealty to his personal version.  Once again, we have the episcopacy's viewpoint being imposed on the rest of the church, including the clergy itself.

I've said this many times here: while I know what my personal preferences are, I am not so foolish as to believe that because I hold those beliefs personally, that my views should be adopted.  What I do not understand, however, is the absolute refusal to enter into a dialog within his own church.  By that refusal, I think Benedict is simply hardening the positions of all involved, and thus all but guaranteeing a schism in "his" church.  I don't use the term "his" lightly, because what we are seeing, is that much of the church is moving on.  The youth, in particular, are simply walking away in massive numbers, leaving the gray hairs the remnants.  The effects of this will be seen in a generation or two, when those marrying today, do not bring their kids up in the church.  As that cycle repeats, the self sustainability of the church will fall apart, leaving a small, remnant church, the church Benedict apparently envisions,  filled with folks like Raymond Burke: dogmatists, but not very pleasant people to deal with, and not at all the kind of place that the modern world will see as a beacon of hope.

Apr 9, 2012 -- 8:05PM, jane2 wrote:

Mo

More than a little a little wisdom in this post. My Catholic grandchildren 15-17-20 have walked away. These young people will be fifth generation college educated, one is finishing up his 4th semester at MIT. They and those like them know how to think and evaluate.

I'm pleased that the priests in Europe and Australia are "interfering". Would that more of our American priests would or could. My former pastor has chosen to be a high school chaplain and he was so Vatican II.  The gray-hairs in my former parish gave him grief--especially those who solely attended parochial grade schools. The newer lot are all JPII mentored.
 

Jane

That I am not a fan of Benedict or JPII should not surprise anyone.  Frankly, I don't care what they've written, nor whether or not they were "good" men in terms of their own life.  What I DO care about is their effect on "the church."  Clearly, I think "the church" is NOT the hierarchy, but the struggling, inconsistent, sometimes immature but ever hopeful people who try, each in his/her own way, to find the path every day of their lives.  I see tremendous wisdom in the lives of these people.  I also believe that what is holding the church back from what it could be is the attitude of guys like Benedict and JPII, who clearly see the laity as something not to be trusted. 

So we live in an inverted world, wherein an all male organization can tell us that refusal to allow women the same rights and priveleges is not descrimination.  We live in a world where these celibate men think they know better than a billion (more or less) married people about human sexuality.  We live in a world wherein they don't believe accountability should apply to them, only to everybody else.  And sadly, THEY live in a world where they think future generations will listen to them because of their office. 

The simple truth is that much of our generation has already walked or otherwise checked out.  And the young have discovered the simple truth that one need not follow a bishop to find God.

The potential that is being squandered by NOT engaging in dialog and listening, is stunning.  For all of their education, so many of these guys simply and truly don't get what life itself is all about.

Apr 10, 2012 -- 10:10AM, Marcion wrote:

Apr 5, 2012 -- 7:25PM, cherubino wrote:

... and step aside, please. Your passion, death & resurrection are on hold until further notice. As a matter of fact, these old stories are hardly top priorities in the Church any more. Holy Thursday or not, the Pope has more important things to talk about.

I have posted many times that Jesus is in the back of the bus in the Roman Catholic Church; if he is there at all.

I think He is tied up on top of the bus.... keep kind of close but out of sight, the bus is marching towards Ceaser (royalty and power - Trent) and can't have someone in the bus yelling that the bus is going the wrong way....