Tony Flannery

On that fateful day in 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio walked out on the balcony as the newly elected Pope, I knew almost nothing about him, but the fact that he was from South America gave me hope of a change after the long years of authoritarianism coming from the throne of Peter. My enquiries with Jesuit friends produced mixed reviews. But we quickly saw indications of somebody different. He dressed more simply, he stayed in the guesthouse rather than taking up residence in the Papal quarters.

My friend, Peter Keenan, has recently written a fascinating trilogy on the Birth, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. The last one of the trilogy, under the above title, has just been published by Columba Books.

I publish here the press release that goes with the publication. It makes for a fascinating read.

The Resurrection of Jesus the Jew – Press Release – The Resurrection of Jesus the Jew 

How are we to understand the resurrection of Jesus?

Beyond Priests. The future of ministry in the Catholic Church

In Beyond Priests Paul Collins contends that the requirements of the clerical priesthood of the Catholic Church – that all priests must be male and celibate – is a gross distortion of scripture and the church’s early history that must be changed. While the roots of the modern priesthood go back to the fourth century and even more remotely to the presbyters or elders who advised local bishops in the early church, the contemporary model that a priest is ontologically changed into ‘another Christ’ is very much the product of seventeenth-century French reformers acting to apply the 1563 decree on the priesthood of the Council of Trent.