Tony Flannery

The Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, on the news that Archbishop Charles Brown was being transferred from Ireland after six years as Papal Nuncio, praised his “energy, courtesy, openness, warmth and cooperativeness”. I suppose these are the sort of things that senior Church people say about each other, especially when they are departing the scene. Considering that I am on record as publicly stating that Archbishop Brown was the most destructive presence in the Irish Church, and calling for his removal, I can hardly call myself an objective commentator.

04 March 2017

Statement from the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP)
on the Tuam Babies revelations and
the resignation of Marie Collins from the Vatican Commission on Clerical Sex Abuse

The latest revelations about the burial of babies in the former Mother and Baby home in Tuam, though widely predicted, provoke a sense of both sadness and shame. Sadness, that the very precious, elemental relationship between mothers and their children could be so disrespected by institutions of Church and State in Ireland; and shame because as priests we are part of an institution that has played a central role in this sorry saga.

Des Connell is dead, the emeritus Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin, and Primate of Ireland. A very distinguished title he had, but he paid a big price for it. The old saying, “Be careful what you wish for” might be applicable here. Not that I think Des particularly wanted titles and honours, but he was so much a servant of the institution that, when the call came, he was incable of standing back enough, or hadn’t any friends to advise him, and tell him that he was totally unsuited, by training, experience, personality, for the job the Church asked him to do.