From the National Catholic Reporter
Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery celebrates Mass after five year ban
Sarah Mac Donald
DUBLIN Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery has said he is not anticipating any backlash from the Vatican over his celebration of a public Mass last Sunday in contravention of a ban on public ministry imposed on him by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.
The 70-year-old Irish missioner described the liturgy, which was attended by up to 800 people, as “emotional and beautiful.”
“I have celebrated many big Masses over the years, at missions and novenas, but nothing that touched me to the core like this one.” He added that the occasion “would come close to being the loveliest day of my life.”
Flannery, who is a co-founder of the reform-minded Association of Catholic Priests, said he was “not worried about excommunication” by the church and didn’t “anticipate” any excommunication under Pope Francis and “even less so in the context of Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland next year.”
Referring to the “volume of support and encouragement from people” at the Mass and those who had contacted him by email, letter and telephone, the priest said that for church authorities to do anything to him now would be “shooting themselves in the foot.”
He regarded excommunication as a medieval concept and said it “wouldn’t influence me or my life or my faith in any way,” he told NCR.
