Church flexes muscle - Undermining its moral authority

On a weekend when the Catholic church flexed its muscles in the abortion debate, bringing an estimated 25,000 pro-life supporters from all parts of Ireland onto the streets of Dublin, its moral authority was quietly dealt a potentially damaging blow by an outspoken priest who openly defies the power of the Vatican.

Controversially suspended by Rome last year over calling for the ordination of women as priests, Fr Tony Flannery broke his silence yesterday and refused to accept a deal that would allow him return to the ministry on the condition he rejected his stance on women priests and accepted the rulings of the Church on other contentious issues such as contraception and homosexuality.

Measured in terms of its appeal to the faithful, who turned out in their thousands on a bitterly cold day to oppose government plans to legislate for the X case, the Church can rightly claim to have scored a major publicity coup.