There is “no question” of Fr Tony Flannery facing excommunication, senior Vatican sources have told The Irish Catholic newspaper.

Former president Mary McAleese has decried the Church’s treatment of five silenced priests, accusing Rome of operating through fear and imposing strictures on the clerics which “consume the truth”.

THE banter of the two men strolling into the conference hall spoke volumes.

As a 29-year-old lay Catholic I thought I might offer my own opinion on the Fr Flannery debacle.

A senior Irish cleric has launched a broadside at Pope Benedict XVI and his senior advisers, accusing them of attempting to row back on Catholic Church reforms initiated in the 1960s by Vatican II.

The public read with dismay the media accounts of Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery being muzzled by the Vatican. He has done much good in his life.

The Association of Catholic Priests has accused the Vatican of trying to silence its founding member Fr Tony Flannery and warned the move will exacerbate the perceived “disconnect” between the Irish Church and Rome.

Dissent in the Catholic Church, especially from members of the clergy, invariably elicits a mailed fist reaction from the Vatican. The move to silence Fr Tony Flannery, founder of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) in Ireland, is but the latest example of a ruthless and outdated policy of muzzling those who speak out.

Dan Buckley profiles a priest at odds with some dogmas of the Church

The founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, Fr Tony Flannery, is being investigated by the Vatican because of his liberal views.

A REBEL union of Catholic priests has described Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s historic Dáil speech as being steeped in “dignity”, “strength” and clear on what needs to be done.

THERE was growing opposition in the Catholic Church last night to government proposals to bring the hearing of confessions under the remit of reporting of allegations of child abuse.