Link to Tony Flannery documentary on TG4
The Misneach programme on Tony Flannery was broadcast on TG4 on Wed 18 Oct 2023 @ 9.30pm.
For those who missed it or wish to see it again this is the link to the programme on TG4 Player:
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Sincere thanks for the link to Misneach.
I found the program very moving and I now admire, all the more, Tony’s honesty, integrity and courage in the way he has handled all of this.
Of course, “The Archbishop said no” is a hurt he will take to his grave. And then to hear fifteen minutes later that Geraldine had passed away.
My God, I mean the whole thing is beyond cruel.
I wonder did anyone ever challenge him over what he had done — the Cathedral administrator whom Tony felt was embarrassed, or some priests of the Tuam Archdiocese or the Chapter of Canons — if that is the correct collective noun.
I think Tony did tell us around that time that he subsequently received a letter of condolences from the archbishop but, of course, far too little too late. The man should be totally ashamed of himself but, perhaps, guys like that are so full of their sense of self importance that shame just would not be a factor.
I am also somewhat surprised, I have to say, that there has not been any other comment on this site reflecting on the program.
(Ed: See link below on the programme itself – there were comments posted there.
https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/wp-admin/post.php?post=41403&action=edit)
44 years since John Paul II’s sermons in Ireland. At the time they seemed archaic, a step into the past, a body-blow to any stirrings of life in the Irish church, which was already undergoing a palpable crisis. A year later there was a very unconvincing gathering of youths chosen from the parishes under a tent in Maynooth. They were like sheep without a shepherd, no guidance, no clear purpose at all. All the vitality in Irish life since then has arisen independently of the Church.
Joe, it was the same at Murrayfield here in Edinburgh. I was a youth leader in those bygone days. He was led in by a pipe band and he proceeded to lambast the evils of fornication, contraception, adultery, promiscuity etc, etc.
Talk about the Church in the Modern World— some hope.
Of course, his every utterance was cheered to the rafters and then, once it was all over, nobody paid a blind bit of difference to what he had said.
What damage that man did to our Church and that is even before we mention his top down policy of cover up when the clerical child sex abuse scandals were being exposed.
And before we mention how he bullied priests and theologians, bishops and archbishops and even a religious order.
Now, of course, we are asked to believe that he is a saint !!
I think he only referred to fornication, etc., in a quote from St Paul. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1982/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19820531_giovani-murrayfield.html As to contraception, it’s a local bishop who rejoiced in HV five years ago: https://www.ncregister.com/interview/scottish-bishop-humanae-vitae-is-more-acutely-relevant-today-than-ever
Paddy@3, Joe@4, Thanks Joe for the careful fact-checking. If that 1982 address at Murrayfield had been given by Francis in Portugal in 2023 we could all be loud in its praise. Karol Wojtyla has enough grievous sins of commission and omission on his slate without our adding to his purgatory through our faulty ageing memories !
Yesterday I watched the TG4 programme about Fr Tony Flannery. It saddened me to see someone so damaged by spiritual abuse caused by those in the highest authorities in his priestly and religious life.
The characteristics of spiritual abuse are: pressure to conform and coercive control, enforced accountability, Gas lighting (victim blaming) Censorship of decision making, requirement of silence and secrecy, misuse of sacred texts and spiritual teaching (and, I would add, vows) in order to control.
Just one of these can cause spiritual abuse but in Fr. Tony’s case, every single one of them has caused him spiritual, psychological and emotional trauma. This needs to be brought to the attention of the safeguarding commission in Rome whose duty it is to respond to all those who have been abused in a church context.
For more information: Breaking the Silence on Spiritual Abuse by Lisa Oakley, Kathryn Kinmond. Anne Solomon, who is a psychotherapist and spiritual director, who has an online presence.
Joe, @, you are amazing !
Never did I imagine that I would ever find myself reading the script of that address given by John Paul II at Murrayfield all those years ago.
When I first read your comment, and before I used the link to read the actual address, I thought, given that you seemed to find it acceptable, that perhaps the Pope had veered off his script when he was actually speaking. (And, Eddie, the memory is still pretty good, thanks be to God.)
But, Joe, when I did read the script, thanks to you for providing the link, I found confirmation that he mentioned, in addition to fornication, “gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility ……orgies and similar things” Now, that covers a wide rang of things.
And, then for good measure, “I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God”. All that elicited from me, and many others too, that day an “Oh! my God!”
Can you imagine all those innocent and excited children and young people at Murrayfield — it was a youth Mass — being hit with all that!!
Perhaps, Tony heard much of the same at the Galway Race Course.
Now, Eddie, I consider the coming of Pope Francis a miracle. I never thought that I would see in my lifetime a normal, sensible, enlightened and patently decent man in Rome given what had so recently gone before him. A priest friend of mine over here refers to Francis as God’s unexpected gift to us. So I don’t scrutinise his every utterance. Now, when you mentioned that if Francis had given that Murrayfield sermon in Portugal this year we would all be loud in his praise. For a brief moment I wondered if Francis is now also prone to the odd outburst against orgies and similar things, but, I quickly realised that would not be the case.
So, Joe, according to the script he didn’t mention contraception. Perhaps it was among the “other things”. He certainly felt strongly about it. I am sure you will recall that during his pontificate we learned that his so-called personal theologian, the infamous Mgr. Carlo Caffarra, later to be Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna in Ratzinger’s reign, had advised the Pope to declare the teaching of Humanae Vitae (HV) ex cathedra and only Ratzinger’s intervention stopped it from happening.
I wasn’t aware of Bishop Kennan’s remarks regarding HV. John Kennan was once regarded as the rising star of the Scottish Hierarchy. But that was before Francis. Things seem to have changed now.
How often do I say thank God for Francis. Yet, I realise there is one issue that remains a great disappointment as we often hear from Soline, and all enlightened people would agree with her.
I think I read somewhere in the last few days that he is still claiming that our priesthood must remain a male preserve. What a shame! If Francis could get his head properly around this issue he would be absolutely perfect.
The most recent attempt by him to justify our church’s position was the idea of a Petrine Tradition and a Marian Tradition, I think I am correct in saying. I didn’t study it very carefully and I can’t imagine many experienced scholars giving it much credence.
The long, feminist struggle for equal rights for women — 52% of humankind — has been, on the whole, successful, in the secular world. The criticism of the earlier waves of the movement was due to the fact that it mainly concerned itself with the rights of white, middle class women. This has now changed. I have been reading about the great American, Black Feminist scholar, Kimberlé Crenshaw, who introduced the concept of Intersectionality. She successfully pointed out that women are discriminated against not solely on the grounds of sex/gender but, also, because of colour/race and class. She might also added fundamentalist, religious tradition as another “section” of discriminatory practice.
I am now digressing.
Joe, I remember being at home sometime after John Paul II’s visit to Scotland. It was probably in May the following year and I was at Sunday Mass in my local parish, St. Mary’s, Kincasslagh.
We had a supply priest, a retired missionary, an Irish man, who had been covering the parish for a number of weeks. I think we were awaiting the arrival of the new PP.
It was first Holy Communion Sunday. All the children were sitting in the front two rows by themselves, parents being kept well away. In his homily the priest launched into an impassioned tirade against the evils of the flesh. And, all those innocent, opened eyed children staring at this man as he ranted on and, I’m sure, not having a clue what he was going on about.
Now, I can’t remember all the items mentioned but it took me right to John Paul and Murrayfield.
#7 Yes Paddy, you are right about Pope Francis recently re-stating in book form interviews his belief women cannot be ordained for what he considers to be theological reasons. Again in this latest television interview since the end of the October Synod Francis re-iterates the Marian/Petrine divide which reserves the ordained ministries to men alone.
Unless he has a change of mind it seems therefore certain that there won’t be any opening of ordained ministries (diaconate as well as presbyterate) to women under his pontificate.
https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/synod-soccer-sexuality-pope-gives-another-wide-ranging-interview
(cf par 13 forward)
Yes, the Pauline rhetoric against the “works of the flesh” is strong stuff, listing fifteen in all, and the Pope may have thought that Gal 5:19-21 would be an effective shaft against the Sexual Revolution (1 Cor 8 and Eph 5 offer more in the same vein). It might have been nice if he had continued with Gal 5:22 on the fruits of the Spirit, nine in all (though 5:24 talks of crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires). My good bishop Michael Murphy asked me back in 1980: “Was it your friend St Augustine who got us into this mess,,,, or was it St Paul?” Karl Barth championed these texts, and when he came to discuss homosexuality he sadly was not able to rise above them, floundering in what we would now see as homophobic. Pope Francis places the accents differently, though sharing Paul’s low opinion of fornication, etc., as in a recent address on how the church needs saints who are down to earth, ordinary folk. “We need saints who go to the movies, listen to music and hang out with friends.
We need saints who put God in first place, but who let go of their power.
We need saints who have time everyday to pray and who know how to date in purity and chastity, or who consecrate their chastity.
We need modern saints, Saints of the 21st century with a spirituality that is part of our time.
We need saints committed to the poor and the necessary social changes.
We need saints who live in the world and who are sanctified in the world, who are not afraid to live in the world.
We need saints who drink Coke and eat hot dogs, who wear jeans, who are Internet-savvy, who listen to CDs.
We need saints who passionately love the Eucharist and who are not ashamed to drink a soda or eat pizza on weekends with friends.
We need saints who like movies, the theater, music, dance, sports.
We need saints who are social, open, normal, friendly, happy and who are good companions.
We need saints who are in the world and know how to taste the pure and nice things of the world but who aren’t of the world.”
Maura@6, I think that is one of the best, if not the best, analysis of Tony’s disgraceful treatment that I have read.
Your mention of the the characteristics of spiritual abuse is timely.
Thank you for that.
It does illustrate the corrupt, dysfunctional nature of our institutional church that neither his Redemptorist Order nor the Irish bishops have had the gumption to take a stand for Tony. Shame on them all.
I second Paddy’s appreciation of Maura’s remarks. Priests, as Colm Tóibín noted, are modest, low-key guys. But that is possibly because they have been shamed…. in multiple ways. We “sidle along the wall” as Bernanos cuttingly remarked. To be yourself, to stand up, to speak out, is to be wrong-footed immediately. The system ensures this result.
Spiritual abuse is far more common than sexual or physical abuse in our church but is rarely recognised or named. It damages a persons trust and relationship with the local community, the wider church and sometimes even faith in God. Why isn’t the safeguarding our faith one of the most important aims of the church?
A safeguarding case could be made, filling out the details of Fr Tony’s treatment under each of the indicators of spiritual abuse and presented to the safeguarding commission in Rome. It would clearly indicate that Fr Tony was just ahead of his time and that his suffering should, in justice, be ended.
That would also bypass both the Irish hierarchy and the General of the Redemptorists.
Who among the priests of your association would help him by doing that?
The accusation made most frequently against priests and bishops is that they knew of abuse but turned a blind eye to it.
Well, we all know of the abuse inflicted on Fr Tony, who has more faith in his little finger than his abusers have in their cold hearts.
So what are we doing about it?
What if we all made it a topic of our preaching on a given Sunday?
Maura, I am sure there are senior, respected priests among the ACP who have already tried to end Tony’s suffering.
But now using your suggested route re safeguarding, they may finally have found the means of ending this scandal.
Thank you again, Maura.
Joe@12, what a good suggestion.
I am now also wondering, further to my comment@13 above, would it, perhaps, be more effective if the ACP as a whole — still representing over 1000 Irish priests? — made a submission to the Safeguarding Commission in Rome regarding Tony’s suffering.
This might be facilitated by an addition to the AGM agenda next week.
Did nobody think of an appeal to the Safeguarding Commission before Maura brought it to our attention.
A safeguarding case, advanced in the most thorough and well-grounded way, might force the Curia to listen. It would really be a service to them as well, saving them from themselves. Very few Irish Catholics will read the Synod’s document, but very many have seen how the Vatican treated Sean Fagan and Tony Flannery. Actions speak louder than words.