Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tony Flannery and Brendan Hoban speak strong words

Strong words in yesterday's Irish Times by Frs Tony Flannery and Brendan Hoban.

Tony Flannery believes that the Vatican's silencing of him last year was really about dismantling the Association of Catholic Priests, of which he is a co-founder.

At the Humbert School in Ballina last weekend the Redemptorist priest  said that the great weapon of the (Roman) curia is secrecy; the great weapon of all oppressors.

His book 'A Question of Conscience' is to be published on Thursday, September 12.

Brendan Hoban is critical of the papal nuncio in the appointment of new bishops in Ireland.

Fr Hoban points out that "in recent months, five new bishops have been appointed to dioceses other than their own."

"Archbishop Brown, it seems, spent very little time in parish work and he has no formal training as a papal nuncio, in that he was catapulted out of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into diplomatic service by Pope Benedict, as Rome's answer to the dysfunctional Irish Catholic Church.

"I'm not too sure with these two disabilities plus the inevitable problem of appreciating the nuances of a different culture that such crucial decision-making should be placed effectively in his exclusive hands," Fr Hoban said.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Irrespective of Archbishop Brown's qualifications or training, the practice of appointing new bishops to dioceses other than their home diocese seems to be an intentional strategy on the part of Pope Benedict XVI - as this was was also the practice in countries other than Ireland.

Archbishop Green had the same task in South Africa.

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