20.03.2014
Fr Tony Flannery Addresses Powerscourt Ecumenical Lent Talk
Redemptorist priest, Fr Tony Flannery was in Powerscourt yesterday evening (March 19) speaking about his experiences over the last two years. The Galway priest, who was silenced by the Vatican in 2012, addressed parishioners of Powerscourt and St Mary’s, Enniskerry, as part of a series of ecumenical Lenten talks in Powerscourt New School Hall.
The talks have been coordinated by the Revd Terry Lilburn, curate assistant of Powerscourt and Kilbride and Dr Tom Carey of St Mary’s Parish. This year’s theme is ‘Credo – I Believe’ and Fr Flannery spoke about how more than 40 years of being a Redemptorist priest and his experience over the last two years had affected his faith.
Outlining his journey to Ordination, Fr Flannery said he was the youngest of four boys who all joined the religious life. They lived close to a Redemptorist monastery in Galway and the priests there suggested sending the boys to the Redemptorist boarding school in Limerick. All four brothers went on to join the seminary.
He said it was difficult to recall his motivation for joining the seminary 50 years ago. He grew up next to a Bord na Mona bog and of his class in primary school, just two others went on to secondary school – the rest went to work on the bog or emigrated to Birmingham. He said his parents were ambitious for their sons and didn’t want that for them.
When Fr Flannery joined the Redemptorists he was 17. There were a lot of other young men joining at the time and it was also the era of the Second Vatican Council. “It was an exciting time and we had a vision of a whole new Church,” he recalled. “Did that have anything to do with my beliefs? Belief and faith are complicated things.”
However, he recalled the visit of Pope John Paul II and said that contrary to the great enthusiasm felt nationally, he came away from the youth event in Galway with a sinking feeling. “It was partly to do with what he said but mostly to do with his face… I remember thinking that the era of openness was over,” he said.
Fr Flannery said he wasn’t an academic and felt the Vatican would not have noticed him had he not been one of the founding members of the Association of Catholic Priests. “We were independent and spoke with an independent voice. We were pushing out the boundaries… we became well known spokespeople on anything to do with the Church and the Vatican didn’t like that. I don’t know why they picked on me in particular,” he stated.
He said they objected to a couple of articles he wrote on the origins of the priesthood but he said the Vatican also wanted him to state that he accepted that women would never be ordained to the priesthood in the Catholic Church and that he accepted the moral teachings of the Catholic Church, which he said included its stance on contraception. He said this was the breaking point and he knew in the autumn of 2012 that he would not be let back into ministry.
His experience has resulted in a lot of disillusionment, Fr Flannery said. “I think I still believe in God and I’m very much trying to work out what God I believe in. In my earliest days, God and religion were mediated to me through the Church, and by that I mean the institutional Church, and my view of the Church is different now. So of course that affects my view of God. So I’m in the in between time,” he stated.
The talks in Enniskerry continue for the next three Wednesdays. For details see the events section on dublin.anglican.org.
Photo captions:
Top – Fr Tony Flannery addressing the audience in Powerscourt School Hall.
Bottom – Rector of Powerscourt and Kilbride, Archdeacon Ricky Rountree; Dr Tom Carey of St Mary’s Parish, Enniskerry; Fr Tony Flannery; and the Revd Terry Lilburn, curate assistant of Powerscourt and Kilbride.