Tony Flannery

Fr. James Alison

Pope Francis made a phone call to a leading gay theologian and priest who was suspended from active ministry in part over his LGBTQ-affirming work, and gave the theologian “the power of the keys,” a phrase indicating his restoration to active priesthood.

Francis placed the call two years ago to Fr. James Alison who only yesterday shared in The Tablet his account of the experience, which was first reported about anonymously in Frédéric Martel’s In the Closet of the Vatican published earlier this year. 

Cardinal Gerhart Meuller, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has been a fairly trenchant critic of Pope Francis ever since Francis removed him from his distinguished position in the Roman Curia. In fact, it is said by some commentators who are much more in tune with Roman affairs than myself, that he is the effective leader of the opposition to Francis in the Church. He is more subtle and nuanced than the more colourful Cardinal Burke, but because of his former position, and his theological background, he is the one that the opposition look up to.

I am in the course of re-locating out of the house where I have lived for the past seven years, and going through all my ‘stuff’, and I came across this article written by Gabriel Daly some time after I was withdrawn from ministry, and when Francis had become Pope.  Re-reading it, I felt again a deep sense of gratitude to Gabriel for coming out so strongly in my defense. I also noted, and it must be five years since he wrote it, that he stated that the Redemptorists could restore me to ministry without reference to the CDF — something I recently asked them to do, but they were unwilling to.