Tony Flannery

Since I got involved in the reform movement in the Church with the ACP some five years ago I have attended many meetings and gatherings on various aspects of reform. Last night’s meeting in Clare, organised by the Killaloe Forum on the Diaconate, was probably the most hopeful of them all.
First some background:
Two years ago the diocese organised a listening process. By all accounts this was both extensive and very well done, and resulted in the drawing up of a Diocesan Pastoral Plan, which was launched about a year ago.

The story of the effort by the bishop of Killaloe, Kieran O’Reilly, to introduce the permanent diaconate in his diocese continues to break new ground, and set an example for other places
The latest development is that the bishop has decided to put the decision on hold while further discussion takes place. He deserves great credit for making this decision. How often have we seen Church authorities stubbornly stick with decisions even when they were obviously wrong, because they felt they could not publicly admit that they made a mistake.

Two Irish bishops are in the spotlight at the moment, and it is hard to say that either of them is handling it well.
First we have Kieran O’Reilly, bishop of Killaloe for the past three years. I suppose it could be said that he took on a difficult assignment, coming in after Willie Walsh, who was by far the most popular bishop in Ireland. So much so that the Vatican rapidly accepted his resignation when he came to the proscribed age.