Irish priest to break silence order from the Vatican at Dublin press conference

Gearoid, you're preaching the Dark Ages. Bishop Fellay is himself anti-Semitic, as seen in his recent diatribe against the Vatican (available on You Tube and the IC article "Traditionalist Catholic leader calls Jewish people ‘enemies of the Church’--Video"). He and his SSPX tribe have rejected the consummate authority of a Church Council, along with its core constitutions and doctrines. There is little ambiguity in those documents although, in deference to ultra-conservatives, some documents allude confusingly to papal power while advancing the royal priesthood of all the faithful and the collegiality of bishops. The pope has tried his best to read such documents as re-affirming the papal supremacy that Vatican I Council promulgated in the 1870s along with anti-modernism, but he is rowing against the tide of history, blind to the signs of the times. Vatican II made a definitive break with the Church's medieval understanding of authority and, recognizing progress in universal education and civil liberties, placed the sensum fidelium at its center, just as papal encyclicals that claim infallibility have done! Bishop Fellay and SSPX, along with other priestly societies that reject Vatican II, are in de facto schism, whether or not the Vatican acknowledges the schism. Fr Flannery, by contrast, is in the Vatican II tradition of questioning and debate *within* the sensus fidelium, without which the Magisterium lacks moral authority.

what do i think ? I Think the Vatican is afraid the truth is starting to leak out and become a Flood of Covered up Information about Pedophiles that are still within the Catholic Church.and also how corrupt the church has become. anyone who has a Brain and can Research history can see the Dark History of the early Church Fathers. the slaughter Hundreds of thousands in the Name of God and his Church.The real fault is not the Church. its the Leaders of the Church that need to be weeded out. and new healthy seeds planted the people are the Church and they should Rebuild the church. best way to do it is to stop the flow of money for a year or two then the Vatican might get the message.

what do i think ? I Think the Vatican is afraid the truth is starting to leak out and become a Flood of Covered up Information about Pedophiles that are still within the Catholic Church.and also how corrupt the church has become. anyone who has a Brain and can Research history can see the Dark History of the early Church Fathers. the slaughter Hundreds of thousands in the Name of God and his Church.The real fault is not the Church. its the Leaders of the Church that need to be weeded out. and new healthy seeds planted the people are the Church and they should Rebuild the church. best way to do it is to stop the flow of money for a year or two then the Vatican might get the message.

Gearoid I reccomend you read "James the brother of Jesus"(Robert Eisenman

All one needs to do is read the book by DAvid Gibson, a catholic writer "Pope Benedict and his battle with the modern world" Try www.bookfinder4u.com for best price - its a search engine................ Of course this is the pope who in 2009 UNexcommunciated Bishop Williamson, a holocaust denier.....Wiiilamson was kicked out of Argentina in 2009 and in 2010 Argentina became the first of 4 laTIN american nations to put in gay marriage. And now has a law on the books to give basic protections to trans people................Pray for a long life for this pope -------the longer he rules the sooner freedom from this absolutist church will come to the western world.

The Catholic Christian religion is based upon the solid rock of history, religion, anthropology and tradition of over 2000 years and no "fairytale" (as you sarcastically describe the story of Christianity, merefalow) would realistically last so long. The first hand accounts as related in the gospels of this life of an Man called Jesus are vivid and are hardly stuff of an hallucination. The fact that men like Peter(formerly called Simeon) were prepared to give up their lives to spread the message of this Man that they knew first hand speaks volumes about His reality. We have also evidence from contemporary extra-biblical sources like the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historian Tacticus that Jesus existed. I think that you should do a bit more reading and research before you come out with such idiotic expressions as a "2000 year fairytale".

my post also has not been published,i b..... hate censorship,not the first time on here.lets water it down a bit and see what happens.the gist off it is that i after a lifetime of trying to glean the truth from every religion across the christian spectrum have never been able to obtain any validity that stood up to any scientific or logical examination,so i welcomed this priests sceptasism,and i welcome an objective microscope to be put on this whole 2,000 year fairytale.

Father Flannery a priest for the future. The pope a man of the middle ages.

Sorry about the 2 posts. I clicked 2ce, when it didn't go through right away. I should have noticed what is written below: "It may take several minutes for your comment to appear"!

I can't understand why my post of earlier today was deleted. To be more concise than before, I agree with eiriamach (who I often disagree with) that Father Tony Flannery should not be "excommunicated" over his beliefs that : 1) Women should be ordained; Divorced people should be given the sacraments, 3) Contraception is legitimate, and 4) Gay people are mistreated in the Church. Consider that one "60 Minutes" correspondent said that the Church has apparently become a "Gay Men's Club". It is high time that the Catholic Church stop preaching against homosexuals, and start acknowleging the dominance of gays, in its own clerical ranks today.

I can't understand why my post of earlier today was deleted. To be more concise than before, I agree with eiriamach (who I often disagree with) that Father Tony Flannery should not be "excommunicated" over his beliefs that : 1) Women should be ordained; Divorced people should be given the sacraments, 3) Contraception is legitimate, and 4) Gay people are mistreated in the Church. Consider that one "60 Minutes" correspondent said that the Church has apparently become a "Gay Men's Club". It is high time that the Catholic Church stop preaching against homosexuals, and start acknowleging the dominance of gays, in its own clerical ranks today.

I spent many years in a religious order being harangued by Redemptorists brought up in the old style. How refreshing to see one looking forward and trying to refresh the Church's image. If we get away from reliqious mumbo-jumbo and relook at the humanity of Jesus we might come close to being Christian again.

Oh that's right he liar and fraud who can't even keep the solemn vows he took. The jokes on us if we listen to this clown. But we don't have to. Why doesn't the bum get a real job.

The Catholic priesthood, Eiriamach is pre-configured on the Holy person of Christ, who was and remains the perfect culmination of all previous sacrifices and is the ultimate High-Priest. So it is not accidental that the Christian priesthood in the Church universal(Catholic and Orthodox) has been reserved for the male gender. Jesus was not susceptible to the politically-correct thought of His time and picked 12 men to be his closest associates and the progenitors of the apostolic lineage for Churches around the world. These realities do not eclipse the indispensable roles that women have played in the Church down the centuries beginning with Mary, the Blessed Mother of Our Lord, her sister Martha etc. Women have been named Doctors of the Church e.g. Therese of Lisieux, and innumerable saints are females. The Church recognizes the innate and equal worth of both men and women but also realizes that each have different but equally valid roles to play in the promulgation of the Gospel. The Church's attitude is not based on modern sociological or gender studies but on anthropological and theological studies over centuries that recognize the unique but different qualities of men and women. The SSPX certainly contains within it's ranks members such as Archbishop Williamson(he has since been removed from his post) who outrageously hang onto extremist attitudes which have been denounced by Church authorities. But on the other-hand there are well-meaning and decent individuals whose only concern is the Church remains true to Herself regarding her liturgy and mission in the world. Men like Archbishop Fellay have honest reservations about the liturgical reform and certain doctrinal ambiguities which sprang from Vatican 11 and are continuing discussions with Rome on this. The Vatican quite rightly has laid down tough conditions on them before they are admitted fully back into the ecclesiastical fold again

Gearoid04 says, "Catholic doctrine and tenets in relation to the priesthood and sexual matters are not influenced by relativist secular currents but are in accordance with the will of Christ." Sure, the equal worth of women and men is simply a "relativistic secular current," nowhere to be found in the Gospel, LOL! Christ never expressed his "will" to exclude anyone. Self-serving men do that. They presume to find a "will" -- where? In words that Christ never uttered! That's mind-reading the Savior, and getting it wrong, hummmmm! The burning question is not why the Vatican is disciplining Fr Flannery now, but why, because of dissent from a Church Council -- the ultimate RC authority -- the pope has not silenced Bishop Fellay, who rejects RC teachings on religious liberty, the non-culpability of Jews for Christ's death, the validity of the new Masses, the authority of Vatican II Council itself: "We definitely are opposed to these errors that we find in the [Second Vatican] Council," Fellay says -- on YOU TUBE -- talk about "mainstream media"! The pope lifted SSPX excommunications, even from Holocaust denier Bishop Williamson. And now the pope is about to excommunicate Fr Flannery?? The hypocrisy would be appalling. There can be only one motive: Tony Flannery is one Irish priest, while excommunicating SSPX would mean a schism in the Church.