Tony Flannery

This article was published in today’s Irish Independent.

The current dispute over certain ‘goings on’ in the national seminary in Maynooth raises serious questions for and about the Church, questions that will not be resolved by simply changing personnel, or by adjusting the type of spiritual or theological formation being taught there. These questions are not peculiar to Maynooth, but are common to seminaries in Europe, North America and other places.

There has been some confusion as to whither or not all sanctions were lifted from Sean Fagan before he died. The Irish Times has twice reported that they have, and the Tablet has now published the same ‘fact’.
But unfortunately it is not true. All that was lifted was one part of the sanctions; the others remained in place. So, to say that his good name was fully restored by Pope Francis is, I’m afraid, not correct.

Those who know me won’t be surprised when I say that I have been following with interest the case that Angela Kerins is taking against the Public Accounts Committee. I don’t know Angela; may have met her at some event or other in the past, but I have no recollection that I did.
She is taking a case against the PAC for the way she alleges she was treated when she appeared before the committee in 2014, saying that the abuse she suffered at their hands effectively destroyed her life.