Irish priest Tony Flannery to violate suspension from ministry to celebrate birthday Mass
Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 11, 2017 NCR Today
A popular Irish priest who was suspended from public ministry by the Vatican’s doctrinal office five years ago primarily because of his support for women’s ordination is planning to violate his suspension in order to celebrate the Mass for his 70th birthday.
Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery says in a Jan.
This January marks a significant milestone in my life; the eighteenth of the month is my seventieth birthday. I have wondered how best to mark it. I am not by nature a ‘party person’, so that option did not greatly appeal to me. Having spent forty years of my life ministering as a priest, I am now into my fifth year when I am forbidden by Church authorities to minister publicly.
A Conversation with Tony Flannery
Tony Flannery is a priest and author of A Question of Conscience. He is also co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland. In 2012, Tony was censured by the Vatican and forbidden to minister as a priest over his calls to reconsider official church teachings on celibacy for priests, contraception, homosexuality and women’s ordination. Since 2013, he has been active in the church reform movement around the world.
