A new Tg4 documentary to be broadcast this month will give a personal insight to the life of Galway-native Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery who was suspended from public ministry by the Vatican in 2012 for expressing his support for women’s ordination, optional clerical celibacy, same sex relationships and his liberal views on homosexuality.
Ordained in 1974, Tony Flannery is a well-known priest and missionary and native of Attymon, Co. Galway.
11 years ago, he was summoned to Rome by the Superior General of the Redemptorists to find his writing in Reality magazine had been the subject of complaint to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF ).
He was handed an unsigned piece of paper, containing instructions from the CDF that he be suspended from ministry.
What followed was a long process, the result of which means that to this day, Tony is forbidden to speak in any Catholic Church property.
Tony has never known who his accusers were and has been given no right to appeal this decision.
Despite being offered a chance to return to ministry if he were to sign a statement renouncing his views and agree with the Church’s moral teachings and their stance of female ordination, Tony has not waivered.
Featuring heartfelt contributions from himself, his friends and family, Misneach : Tony Flannery gives a voice to a priest who has been side-lined by the church he has devoted his life to.
Misneach: Tony Flannery will be broadcast at 9.30pm, Wednesday, October 18 on TG4
