Tony Flannery

I was at the conference in Trinity College, entitled ‘Women the Vatican couldn’t Silence’, with Sr. Joan Chittister and Mary McAleese.

It was a really interesting two hours or more. I suppose I am fairly familiar with the views of Mary McAleese on matters of Church and Faith, having heard her many times, so I was more interested in what Joan Chittister would say. I know Joan, though not that well, and I have read a lot of her writing, and also the brilliant biography of her written by Tom Roberts.

A person emailed me recently, looking for a copy of the article that drew the Vatican on me. That set me to re-activating an old laptop, and I eventually found it. It was written back in June of 2010. I am reprinting it here. I still would have no problem with the content, but I can see that for a time when Benedict was still pope, and the CDF lording it over everything in the Church, I was pushing out the boat a little.  

A Charter of Rights and Responsibilities for Christ’s  Faithful

The Principles for a Charter of fundamental rights and responsibilities for Catholics were articulated by the Ordinary Synod of Bishops in 1971. Its final document was entitled “Justice in the World.”  Importantly, the document preserves  the remaining core of a larger project commissioned by Paul VI at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.  It came to be known as the Lex Ecclesiae Fundamentalis (The Basic Law of the Church) and was meant to  stand alongside of Paul’s  Credo of the People of God.