Hundreds Attend Mass as Tony Flannery Defies Vatican Ban by Daragh Small, Irish Times

http://www.tonyflannery.com/

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religisn-and-beliefs/hundreds-attend-mass-as-tony-flannery-defies-vatican-ban-1.2946938#.WIU2xi7mbBo.facebook

Tony Flannery, Redemptorist priest

Bridget Mary's Response: Watch the video and see the warmth of the Irish people and their readiness for a renewed church which Fr. Tony Flannery represents. We owe a debt of gratitude to priests like Tony Flannery and the Association of Catholic  Priests in Ireland for standing up for primacy of conscience on controversial issues such as women priests. One of the ways the Catholic Church could reform is to open all ministries to women including ordination. The international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement is leading the way!  I am sure there are women in Ireland who are ready to pioneer this movement there. I look forward to meeting them in August 2017. www.arcwp.org, Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, sofiabmm@aol.com

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"The Catholic Church’s power to dictate to people has collapsed, a silenced priest who defied a Vatican ban to say Mass in public has said.

Fr Tony Flannery was disciplined and banned from public ministry by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 2012 for views he expressed on Catholic teachings in areas such as sexuality, contraception and the role of women in the church.

Fr Flannery, who turned 70 last Wednesday, decided to mark the occasion by celebrating Mass at Killimordaly Community Centre, near where he lives in east Co Galway on Sunday. He said he feared it would be the last time he did so.

A congregation of hundreds turned out to support him and, in his homily, Fr Flannery spoke of being overwhelmed by the good wishes he had received from across the Catholic community.

Fr Flannery is the founder of the Association of Catholic Priests and he says it is crucial that the Catholic Church reforms its ways before it is too late.

“When you are 70 you don’t plan for the next couple of years,” said Fr Flannery. “Hopefully I will get health. I will write more if I do.”

“I will keep plugging away at church reform and trying to change things, because the church is in desperate need of changing. It’s losing the people at such a rate and it doesn’t need to be.”

Dictates

He said the diverse attendance at the Mass showed “ the power of the church to dictate to people has collapsed”.

“People don’t allow bishops or Popes or the Vatican to dictate to them anymore. And the sooner the Irish bishops realise that and instead of issuing dictates, start listening to the people, the better.”

Fr Flannery is a Redemptorist priest and religious writer who was silenced by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after they disagreed with many of his views."