Fr Tony Flannery has paid a high price for his membership of the
Association of Catholic Priests (ACP). A founder member, over five years
ago, in the dog-days of the Pope Benedict era, Tony and others
(including myself) spelled out as our platform the need for an agenda of
reform for the Church we had served for decades – and which everyone
(or almost everyone) could see was dying by the day.
That we struck a nerve with our fellow-priests was obvious. Within a year or so over 1,000 priests has signed on as members. But because we didn’t fit into the tradition of priests being seen and not heard and because bishops were in denial of the reality of Catholic life in Ireland, we were regarded as ‘dissidents’, partly responsible (as Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Visitation team would later report) for the bleak situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2015/08/what-did-the-bishop-achieve/
That we struck a nerve with our fellow-priests was obvious. Within a year or so over 1,000 priests has signed on as members. But because we didn’t fit into the tradition of priests being seen and not heard and because bishops were in denial of the reality of Catholic life in Ireland, we were regarded as ‘dissidents’, partly responsible (as Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Visitation team would later report) for the bleak situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/2015/08/what-did-the-bishop-achieve/
