Tony Flannery – guest speaker at Empowering Ourselves: Flourish and Thrive
| ROOT & BRANCH Community international grassroots community for an inclusive, just & safe Catholic Church. hello@rootandbranchsynod.org www.rootandbranchsynod.org No. 119 26/04/2024 FLOURISH AND THRIVE Dear friends, We’re delighted to be able to announce that TONY FLANNERY Redemptorist will be our Keynote Speaker at Empowering Ourselves: FLOURISH and THRIVE 30th Aug – 1st Sept 2024 Hinsley Hall, Leeds LS6 2BX  “I no longer believe that there is one set of doctrines that encompass the whole truth and that all other belief systems are false. Life is Mystery, and none of us can fully comprehend the vastness of it; there is space and an open door for all, for those who are searching…” A co- founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, Tony Flannery is well-known in international reform circles and in his native Ireland.A modest, gentle, and tenacious soul, he was popular in Irish Catholic parishes as a thoughtful and sympathetic preacher of retreats. He saw the struggles of Catholics with Church teachings, and the failure of the institution to understand, and began writing articles in Reality magazine.In 2011, the CDF, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, decided that some of his writings were heretical. Refusing even to meet him face-to-face to explain the charges against him, they instructed his superiors in 2012 to ban him from priestly ministry. His crime was to have been a decade ahead of his time. Working through the deep painfulness of this ban, Tony now sees his exclusion as a gift, enabling him to see things from the outside. Come and spend time with Tony at Empowering Ourselves and hear the man who, as religious affairs commentator Kevin Hegarty says, “has borne his exclusion with grace and fortitude.He has devoted his time to reading and reflection.… In parched terrain, he has discovered new wells that are worthy of further exploration”. We are where we are, says Tony, but how did we get here? The challenge, as he sees it, is “to escape from the straitjacket of doctrine and liturgy”… “to be aware as best we can of the loving presence in the heart of everything.” Google for more info on Tony: https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/irish-redemptorists-ask-vatican-reinstate-priest-barred-ministry-over-womens-ordinationhttp://www.tonyflannery.com/https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/55118/page/2 |
I agree with Fr. Flannery that Life is a mystery.
Quoting from Fr. Flannery:
“I no longer believe that there is one set of doctrines that encompass the whole truth and that all other belief systems are false.”
In St. Matthew, Chapter 16:18, Jesus says to St. Peter: “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.
Our Lord said CHURCH, NOT CHURCHES. The one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is the ONLY church founded by Christ.
When Christ lived among us, he taught his Apostles. Anything taught by Christ is de Fide.
At Pentecost, true to his promise, Christ sent the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, in completion of the Perennial Binding Public Revelation of our Church. What was revealed to the Apostles by the Holy Ghost is de Fide. Since then, under the Tradidi Quod et Accepi Principle, the Faith has been handed down. Bishops and Priests have a duty to pass on the Perennial Binding Public Revelation of the Faith unchanged.
The Holy Ghost, never contradicts himself.
Sadly, the views of Fr. Flannery bring to mind St. Paul, Gal 1:8, “But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach a Gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be ANATHEMA”.
I would have thought Fr. Flannery would be much happier as a Humanist Minister, given his views as expressed above.
There is much, much more delight, wisdom, human and divine understanding in Scripture, the Fathers, the Saints, and the great Theologians of the Christian churches than Irish Catholics seem ready to realize. Thinking of the late Terry O’Reilly, UCC, and his lifelong delight in the Spanish mystics, and of his wife Jennifer’s joyful exploration of Bede, the Book of Kells, and the entire fabric of Irish and British ancient churches, I can only deplore that so many have found so little to nourish their minds, hearts, and souls in the precious heritage they have received.