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TWO PRIESTS HAVE said the Vatican should change how it deals with clergy and lay people.
Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Sean McDonagh, co-founders of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, have both been at odds with the Vatican on more than one occasion.
Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1 today, they said the Catholic Church also needs to apologise for how it has treated women and give them more power in the Church.
Flannery (70) said his first public mass in over four years last week to mark 40 years in the priesthood. He was banned from saying mass publicly in 2012, after some people in the Vatican took issue with his stance on certain subjects.
In February 2012, I became aware that the Vatican objected to some of my writings … In particular one that I had written just after the Cloyne Report, when Ireland was in a fervour about the whole cleric sexual abuse issue, and, in that context, I had written a sentence that went something like this: ‘The priesthood as we have it now is not as Jesus intended it to be’.
Flannery said he thought the statement was “about as obvious a point as you could possibly make”, but the comment was taken out of context and the article “landed in an office in the Vatican”.
He also took issue with how the Catholic Church approaches other topics, such as teachings on homosexuality, contraception and women’s ordination.
Flannery said the Vatican never contacted him directly before barring him from saying mass in public. He described the way the Church’s hierarchy deals with priests like him as “completely unjust and abusive”.
Pope’s visit
Today the Sunday Times reported that Taoiseach Enda Kenny has asked Pope Francis to review the cases of five priests in Ireland disciplined by the Catholic Church, including Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy, in a bid to “improve the environment” for the papal visit to the country next year.
Flannery said he’s grateful to Kenny for intervening but, even if the Vatican pardoned him to coincide with the Pope’s visit, he would still be “very unhappy” as the way the Vatican deals with priests would not have been addressed, adding: “That’s my big beef.”
He said he understands Pope Francis is “quite unhappy” with how the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith operates and has “largely sidelined them”, but he’s not sure if the pope has the power or time “to really change” how they operate.
Flannery said he is ”very much in tune with Pope Francis” and how he approaches things, much more so than some Cardinals.
‘A huge apology to women’
McDonagh backed up Flannery and took particular issue with how the Church has treated women, saying: “One of the greatest scandals of the Church is, from the New Testament period right up to now, how the Church treated women.
Women are the elephant in the Church’s reality at the moment. They have to be brought into the structures of governance … the Church has to make a huge apology to women.
McDonagh said the Church should be striving for an equal gender split in terms of the people who govern it.
He also criticised how the Vatican “forced” an “appalling translation of the Latin mass” onto English-speaking churches, further alienating lay people.
‘Utter collapse’
McDonagh noted that when he was he was a student in the seminary in Maynooth there were about 600 students, where there are only around 30 now.
Flannery said the Church in Ireland is “in a state of utter collapse”, with people “leaving the Church in droves”, and action is needed to change this.
When asked if he has ever considered leaving the Church, Flannery said “absolutely not”. However, when asked if he would join the priesthood in the first place if, as a younger man, he knew what he knew now, he said he would not.
Flannery said the Church has “blatantly” disrespected women and, if he could live his life again, would like to have got married.
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Anyone sad enough to watch deserves liver failure!!
People like drinking and getting really drunk, it’s fun. This is a reality.
i agree, but recently i have become worried that i might have bowel cancer, coz an ad on the telly told me to
Tallafornia is enough to turn people off drinking.
I watched a minute to see what it was about. It was enough for me to think about removing my tv altogether…..scumbags on tv
to be honest, I these shows are more about being scripted than reality TV. I seriously doubt it it true to real life, and I seriously doubt the majority of Irish youth would idolise such behaviour
Em, actually I’d say if you found yourself in a dublin nightclub in the early hours of a saturday morning, you might realise that a lot of Irish youth try to emulate such behaviour. My only point would be, that shows like this might show people how stupid they look when they get that drunk and act like that!
But Antoinette are they not people who are already drunken knobs? It’s not a TV show that is making them behave that way.
Maybe they should be made drink their own fake tan.
I don’t watch any of this tripe. But if watching them influences how you drink at home, then I’m pretty sure there is no hope for you in the real world.
I think Soaps are really bad for it too, time was when something happened they put the kettle on! Now after a murder or a fire they all break open the Ernest and Gallo.
Now to someone may watch Eastenders and go I wish I was like that moderately attractive single Mum with a sister in prison and no real prospects in life. They might just about. But who would watch the cretins on Tallafornia and think to themselves that they want to be like one of them? Does anyone really?
Unfortunately yes. They didn’t just make these people up. we’ve all known a few in our time.
Ive known some alright but they didn’t end up like that from watching a TV show, they were always knobs. Do you really think many people watching Tallafornia really aspires to that?
No they set a bad example for human existence period.
No they promote sterilisation and euthanasia!!
I think it sets a bad example for how to live your life….
Seems like wine companies have big share of eastenders and Corey street scripting. Glass of red is the new fag break.
Biggest load of crap ever put on the telly watched 5 mins to much of it!
I said that BLEEEEP also had a penchant for a few BLEEEEPS himself and it was kinda hypocritical to be calling BLEEEEP drink sodden.
Agh hey did it again!
“Your Say” Unless we don’t like your comment. Then it’s deleted without explanation.
What’d you say?
It would make you turn to drink just thinking about all the people who watch it religiously and talk about it all week. Fucking pathetic morons.
People drink at home cus it’s too expensive to drink out !!! I would much rather sit at home with friends and have a good natter and a laugh then sit in a smelly night club wer ya spend about 100 euro on a few drinks !! Bottle of vodka from Aldi and a bottle of coke 20euro !!! That’s why I drink at home anyway!!
and I do like a drink on Friday evening I work hard and deserve it !
I dont worry about myself of course!
but there’s no doubt that its peddling an infinitely watchable bad behaviour stereotype that appeals to 16-22 year olds! which is bad example and bad ethics – but more importantly its rubbish television!
‘twould drive ya to the drink if you gave it the time of day
ha ha WILLIAM ! BRILL i agree totally !!!!!!!!!!!!!! pass me a kag and a carafe of wine S T A T !! lol
have your say