Quotes in today's Irish Times from Archbishop Charles Brown:
What is being sought is someone, in "the words of Pope Francis. 'Who has the smell of the sheep' ". Someone who will be a good father, pastor, brother to his priests, with everything that implies....
someone who needs to be able to preach relatively well, and be able to communicate the beauty of the Catholic faith to his people.... someone who also needs to be able to administer relatively well'.
Elsewhere he says:
"I love Pope Benedict. I visit him when I go to Rome. I admire him with all my heart. I've been very, very influenced by him. I feel very, very close to him."
Elsewhere:
"I admire these three popes. I've had the joy of working for each of them, and I resonate in different ways with all three of them, but in the end there is only one Lord, and his name is Jesus Christ."
Today's Irish Examiner gives much space to the story that Bishop William Crean has banned Fr Tony Flannery talking at an event in Killeagh Parish in Co. Cork.
Before the development of Photoshop it was generally accepted that a picture tells a thousand stories.
Still, the picture of Charles Brown in today's Irish Times tells its own story.
The bishop of Cloyne was appointed to the diocese since Charles Brown became the Holy See's ambassador to Ireland.
What sorts of organisations and institutions and what sorts of people stop people from talking?
It's so embarrassing.
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5 comments:
Fortunately he has not succeeded in doing what the CDF could not do. He has not shut Tony Flannery up. He has only stopped him talking at a particular location.
In today's online world that only shows him up as an idiot. Doesn't say much for Charlie Brown's discernment either.
I have just re-read your post of September 2013 where you reproduce both the Bishop's letter (written as he was about to become a bishop) and your original column to which he so sneeringly objected.
The (now) Bishop's objections are difficult to understand as the points you made are quite reasonable and are now the subject of fairly widespread current debate.
I can only come to the conclusion that he took them personally as an accusation that he was not sufficiently recycled to become a bishop and, even if he were (and did, as it turned out), that he would not have succeeded in so doing under a fair and efficient selection system. It seems to me that this reveals more about him than it does about you.
In any event, his recent action casts doubt on the wisdom of his selection and is as much a reflection on the Nuncio as on himself. It is unlikely to be a reflection on Pope Francis who, presumably, did not know the man.
I note in passing, via Clerical Whispers, that Dermot Clifford has given his former pupil an enthusiastic endorsement. Now, I've had my own (remote) run in with the same Dermot and can say, with my hand on my heart, that I would run a mile from any endorsement from that quarter.
Keep up the good work.
'He (the Bishop) said the reason was that Fr Flannery was currently out of ministry and the policy of the diocese of Cloyne is that a priest who is out of ministry, for whatever reason, cannot exercise a public ministry'(Irish Times). That's perfectly reasonable, unless Flannery feels that these rules should not apply to him. Flannery has not been reinstated to ministry despite the supposed liberalism of Francis 1st. Could it be that even Francis 1st thinks that Flannery is unorthodox?
I see that Bishop Crean signed himself William, not Billy.
Names are important. When the bishop of Cloyne was pp in Castlegregory we all called him 'Billy'. It is what he was known by and indeed what he called himself. And I know him as 'Billy'.
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