Bishop’s diktat closes down public debate

SOME things never change, at least in the institution of the Catholic Church. 

Despite all of the warm, touchy-feely rhetoric about being a listening, inclusive Church, one that values the input of its laity, it remains an autocratic, anti-democratic organisation happy to stifle free speech if its authority or teachings are challenged in even the most gentle way.

Today we report that a priest has been prevented from speaking at a parish event in east Cork by the local bishop William Crean. Killeagh Parish Pastoral Council had invited Redemptorist Tony Flannery to speak in September but, according to Fr Flannery, that invitation was withdrawn after Bishop Crean became aware of the invitation. The crozier was used to good effect to stifle debate, close down a necessary discourse, and bully a community group into accepting an unwelcome diktat from a blinkered hierarchy.