Sir, – I read with dismay of how Bishop Crean of Cloyne contacted the Killeagh pastoral council and instructed it to withdraw its invitation to Fr Tony Flannery to address it ("Bishop cancels talk by liberal priest Fr Tony Flannery", August 22nd).
Is Tony Flannery not silenced enough by being unable to celebrate the sacraments in public? Is he now to be denied freedom of speech also? I’m sure that whatever topic Tony Flannery intended addressing, it was unlikely to have caused many of the good citizens of Killeagh to be scandalised or, worse still, to have caused a mini-schism.
I believe that Bishop Crean has damaged his own reputation and belittled the parish priest and his pastoral council by his actions. And we wonder why more young people are unwilling to study for the priesthood?
I had the pleasure of listening to Philip Pinto, who is the first non-European to become leader of the Christian Brothers, at a talk in the Dominican Biblical Institute in Limerick a number of years ago. His thoughts on vocations to the priesthood are that if God had meant there to be a celibate, male priesthood into perpetuity then there would be. However he felt that the Spirit is leading the Catholic Church in a different direction and we should listen to the voice of the Spirit.
Having also had the pleasure of listening to Fr Tony Flannery, I am convinced that the Spirit is speaking through him and other so-called liberal priests.
Of course, not everyone wants to hear what the Spirit is saying, especially if it isn’t in alignment with their view of what the church should be and particularly those who still hanker for the glory days when bishops had unquestioned power over everyone in their diocese.
I was reminded of the words of the late John O'Donohue in his conversation with John Quinn in the recently published Walking on the Pastures of Wonder: "All fundamentalism is based on faulty perception and an unreal nostalgia. What is created is a fake absence in relation to the past. It is used to look away from the challenge and potential of the present and to create a future which is meant to resemble a past that never really existed".
Prophetic words from another so-called liberal priest and words that Bishop Crean and his episcopal brothers would do well to dwell on. – Yours, etc,
MARY BOURKE,
Broadford,
Co Clare.