Tony Flannery

As I write this I am three weeks into my U.S. speaking tour, and at the Call to Action conference in Memphis, which is the eleventh stop in my eighteen city schedule. It has been a hectic, but extraordinarily interesting few weeks. I am getting the chance to see much of this enormous country, and to talk to Church reform people everywhere I go.
As the same time any impressions I have formed of the American Church will inevitably be tentative, because it will take time and rest before I can fully integrate all that I am experiencing.

I had a busy day today at the CTA conference.  I gave a talk in the morning on the history of women in the Church, with particular emphasis on the spirituality of the women mystics.  I drew a lot of what I was saying from Mary T. Malone’s wonderful new book, The Elephant in the Church.  The crowd who came were so great that we had to be moved to a larger venue, and even there, in the best Redemptorist tradition, they had to go for more chairs.

Here at the Call to Action conference in Memphis I have just spent an hour listening to Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Bobby. She is a most inspiring person.  I could have listened to her for hours.  She has the brilliant communication skills, use of language, and engaging personality of her more famous family members.

She has spent the last thirty five years working in the area of human rights all over the world.