Outspoken priest risks excommunication to celebrate Mass

Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery, who was suspended from public ministry by the Vatican five years ago, faces being excommunicated when he celebrates a public Mass in Killimordaly Community Hall on Sunday, January 22.

However, after five years in a ‘limbo state’, following the Vatican’s silencing, that threat holds no fear for him. His biggest concern at the moment is that the hall, which has a capacity of about 200, won’t be able to accommodate the numbers who intend to turn up.

The outspoken Redemptorist, who will turn 70 on January 18, says the Mass will celebrate his birthday and mark 40 years of his life as a working priest, during which time he gave missions and novenas as a member of the Redemptorist Order.

However, in 2012, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) forbade Fr Flannery from practising as a priest – he was no longer allowed to say Mass, hear confessions, conduct retreats or lead novenas, among other restrictions.

Fr Flannery – whose liberal views on issues such as women priests, celibacy, birth control and sexuality challenged traditional Vatican teachings – feels that the reason he was silenced was because of his involvement in setting up the Association of Catholic Priests with fellow clerics Fr Brendan Hoban and Fr Seán McDonagh.

“I’d be fairly certain the reason the CDF did what they did to me wasn’t because of what I’d written, it was to do with the Association of Catholic Priests. That was about giving an independent voice to priests, and priests are not supposed to have an independent voice.”

Fr Flannery doesn’t know why the CDF – the Vatican’s disciplinary arm – singled him out but says “maybe the idea was that ‘we’ll put manners on one of them and that’ll finish the organisation’”.

If that was the aim, it failed.

“The Association is still going strong, with more than 1,000 members.”

Fr Flannery says Pope Francis offers hope of change within the church, and has given the lead to bishops worldwide, asking them to contact him about the Church’s needs. But the Irish bishops have been unwilling to engage with either the Pope or their own priests.

“The bishops are not willing to have a discussion with us about the state of the Church,” he points out.

As for his own situation, while Taoiseach Enda Kenny did deliver a letter from Fr Flannery to Pope Francis, the Redemptorist feels it will have little impact.

“Pope Francis, whom I have great time for, has an awful lot more on his plate than the doings of an individual priest in the West of Ireland.

“I have been told that he doesn’t deal with individual priests. And he has problems too, with five cardinals openly and publicly accusing him of heresy.”

However, if Pope Francis visits Ireland next year, as is expected, there might be developments for Fr Flannery and five other priests who were also silenced and whose situation was referenced in his letter to the Pope.

Pope Francis has also “clipped the wings of the CDF”, which lessens the likelihood of Fr Flannery being excommunicated for saying Mass publicly.

“If I had done it five years ago, I have no doubt that I’d be informed I was officially excommunicated and the Redemptorists would be told they’d have to formally dismiss me. That’s based on priests with similar experiences. And it could still happen.”

However, he is not threatened by the “medieval concept of excommunication, which has no meaning in the modern world”, saying that his life has moved on in the last five years.

“I’m involved in the Church reform movement internationally and through that I’ve met a whole new range of people around the world.”

What upset Fr Flannery most about his dealings with the Vatican was the way in which he was treated.

“The Vatican wouldn’t even talk to me directly. They dealt with my direct superiors and gave them orders to give me orders. They showed none of the basic principles of human rights. The Church operates likes a 16th century institution, although it has very good individual people and advocates for human rights.”

At official level, Fr Flannery’s order has done exactly what the Vatican instructed it to do, and “acted as a messenger boy”, he says.

“The Redemptorists in Rome followed orders with the justification that they don’t have a choice because if not, they’d be removed. At a local level, I have received support and am still a member of the Esker community but I don’t live there. I live in Killimordaly in the family home.”

He is grateful to the committee of Killimordaly Community Hall which has granted him permission to celebrate the Mass in venue. It will take place at 2.30pm on Sunday, January 22, followed by tea and sandwiches in the Earl Inn.