Church must listen to dissenters

I am appalled to read the recent report that Pope Benedict has cracked down on dissent and good priests such as Tony Flannery and Gerard Moloney.

Their ministry in honest communication appears to threaten the absolute monarchy at the Vatican. Tragically, they are among the latest theologians consigned to the gulag over the past 30 years by Cardinal Ratzinger.

I am deeply troubled as a Catholic to note that the bloody cancer of the Roman Inquisition has not gone away. Our recent hopes for a Catholic Spring seem to have been scourged, crucified and buried.