Tony Flannery

As a result of my recent piece about certain Church doctrines I have had a lot of correspondence, most of it very interesting and informative. One person wrote to me with the following question:

I would be very interested in your views of the consecration which is the bedrock of a lot of catholic teaching and the resurrection. Is the resurrection like the virgin birth another Myth?.

Below is my attempt at an answer:

Myths are important in helping us to define who we are.

It is now over five years since the Vatican first got their claws into me. Most of the time I believe I have moved on, that my life has been interesting for those years, that I have moved into a different world, got to know many interesting people. But once in a while a wave of anger comes over me. I know that anger, if it gets a grip on a person, is destructive, so I usually manage to let it go.

The Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, on the news that Archbishop Charles Brown was being transferred from Ireland after six years as Papal Nuncio, praised his “energy, courtesy, openness, warmth and cooperativeness”. I suppose these are the sort of things that senior Church people say about each other, especially when they are departing the scene. Considering that I am on record as publicly stating that Archbishop Brown was the most destructive presence in the Irish Church, and calling for his removal, I can hardly call myself an objective commentator.