Tony Flannery

ACP Statement on Allianz

August 21 2025

21 August 2025

Association of Catholic Priests

Now that an impressive, possibly comprehensive, list of reputable and credible agencies is lining up to use the difficult word ‘genocide’ to describe what’s happening in Gaza, a new clarity has exposed the frightening possibility of an absolutely catastrophic ending to a tragedy that, despite Israel attempting to block media coverage, the truth is to be seen in the images of dying children on the television screens of the world.

As published in The Journal, August 18.

Enormous change is happening in our understanding of the message of Jesus, which presents significant challenges for all Christian churches, but maybe most of all the Catholic Church. For most its history the institutional Church kept strict control of its interpretation of the Jesus story, and of the dogmatic teaching they derived from it. People who deviated from this teaching were banished, or at other times were put to death.

On that fateful day in 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio walked out on the balcony as the newly elected Pope, I knew almost nothing about him, but the fact that he was from South America gave me hope of a change after the long years of authoritarianism coming from the throne of Peter. My enquiries with Jesuit friends produced mixed reviews. But we quickly saw indications of somebody different. He dressed more simply, he stayed in the guesthouse rather than taking up residence in the Papal quarters.