PROMINENT REDEMPTORIST Fr Tony Flannery has criticised Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin for failing to discuss matters raised in the Murphy report with fellow bishops in advance of publication.
“These bishops are not recalcitrant teenagers; they are intelligent and mature men, so it was pathetic of Diarmuid Martin to use the media to communicate with them,” Fr Flannery said in this week’s issue of the Connacht Tribune. “It showed scant respect,” he added. “Bishop Drennan was correct when he said that his integrity was questioned.”
Fr Flannery, who is based in Athenry, Co Galway, said the sad and tragic saga of child abuse had hurt many people, and “real change” must come from the community of believers who were no longer willing to accept that all authority in the (Catholic) Church is exercised by an exclusive group of men handing down their diktats from afar.
Fr Flannery is author of the recently published book, Responding to the Ryan Report, in which he argues that revelations about clerical involvement in various forms of abuse might provoke the Catholic Church into reviewing its teaching on sexuality. Church leadership should learn to trust the believing community, and develop its teaching in partnership with them, rather than handing it down in an authoritarian manner, he has said.
