The Association of Catholic Priests, which claims to represent more than 800 clergy, has strongly defended Fr Tony Flannery, recently silenced by the Vatican. It described the move as “extremely ill-advised”.
Fr Flannery, a member of the association’s leadership team, has had his monthly column with Redemptorist magazine Reality discontinued at Vatican direction, while Fr Gerard Moloney, the magazine’s editor, can no longer write on certain issues.
In a statement yesterday the other remaining members of the leadership team, Fr Brendan Hoban, Fr Seán McDonagh, and Fr P J Madden, said they were “disturbed that Fr Tony Flannery . . . is being ‘silenced’.”
