Tony Flannery

Tomáš Halík

Christianity at a time of sickness                              

Our world is sick. I’m not just referring to the coronavirus pandemic, but to the state of our civilisation, as revealed in this global phenomenon. In biblical terms: a sign of the times.

At the beginning of this unusual period of Lent many of us thought that this epidemic would cause a sort of short-term blackout, a breakdown in the usual operation of society, one that we would ride out somehow, and then soon things would all return to the way they were.

The main issue that the Vatican objected to in my writing was that I suggested that Jesus did not ordain anyone. They regarded that as ‘heresy”

Now, in a letter to The Tablet magazine, a highly respected Scripture scholar, saying he is expressing views common to many other biblical scholars, goes much farther than I did ten years ago, and the world doesn’t fall in.  This is the letter:

Has the Holy Father made a mistake in not permitting the ordination of women, even initially only to the diaconate?

I have been neglecting my blog in recent times, because whatever creative energy I have is going towards completing a book, which I am hoping to get on the shelves in the Autumn, all going well. Of the various books I have published over the years the biggest seller was one I wrote twenty one years ago, called From the Inside. So I am tempted to call this latest opus From the Outside.