Tony Flannery

Catholic priests in Ireland: A ‘lost tribe’
Guilt by association is unfair and unjust

The lot of the Irish Catholic priest has rarely been more difficult. It might be argued that even in the persecuted past they were in a better place. Then they were revered as heroic for bringing spiritual comfort to the faithful at the risk of dungeon, fire and sword. Not so today.
As Fr Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholic Priests memorably put it at their annual general meeting in Athlone on Wednesday, they feel “reviled, insulted, disrespected”.

I was in Berlin when the results of the U.S. election gradually emerged early on Wednesday morning. Having spent the last two weeks of October in the U.S. I was very familiar with the campaign, and with the very diverse views of people there.
Like most most here in Ireland I was shocked and disappointed by the choice made by the American people. But, as the recently deceased Peter Barry said in 1992, quoting Dick Tuck after he had lost the State Senate election in California in 1966, “the people have spoken ………..

The ACP is now six years in existence. During that time we have made many efforts to get some real dialogue with the Irish bishops. That culminated in a meeting last May at which the ACP delegation raised some serious and urgent issues about the Irish Church, and looked for a process of continual dialogue in order to meet the challenges facing us.

Below is the response:

Dear Brendan,

Thank you for your letter, dated August 18th.