Tony Flannery

A few days ago, around mid morning, I was getting ready to celebrate Mass with a friend of mine. I had all the necessities laid out, the books opened and the candles lit, when my phone rang. Somebody was calling to tell me that a letter had arrived at a Redemptorist house for me. I asked him to open it and tell me what it contained. It was from the Civil Registration Service, telling me that I was no longer on the approved list of marriage solemnisers.

This is a really interesting exchange between the Chief Commissioner and a retired bishop, attempting to explain why the Church did not report cases of abuse by priests to civil authorities.

A flawed intellectual framework and its disconnect from civil society (Main Forum)
by Maitland, Australia, Sunday, September 18, 2016,

This from exchange between Justice McClellan, Chief Commissioner and emeritus Bishop of Parramatta, Bede Heather last Wednesday (21/09/16) afternoon:

Q. You see, what you’re telling me now has been said to
us by a number of senior and not so senior members of the
church, you understand?

The answers to the two questions on religion in the poll conducted among Irish farmers, and published in the Irish Examiner, are really interesting. 82% are in favour of priests being allowed to marry, and, even more surprisingly, 58% are in favour of women being ordained as priests, with 52% strongly in favour.
And to put this in context, of those polled 69% are regular Mass attenders, meaning that they attend Mass every weekend.