Tony Flannery

Today, March 13, is the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. In the years since, I don’t think he has every been challenged in quite the manner he was last Thursday by Mary McAleese. Her language was strong, and her tone had an underlying anger to it. Some have criticised her for this. I am in no position to do so, having spent most of my life as a member of the clerical elite, and not having any personal experience of what it is like for a woman in the Catholic Church.

“Who made the changes to the World Meeting of Families promotional material?”
Association of Catholic Priests
Tuesday 6 March 2018

The Association of Catholic Priests is concerned that, following the earlier removal of photographs from a leaflet, the organisers of the World Meeting of Families have now also removed the words of Bishop O’Connell (Archdiocese of Los Angeles) from their promotional video clip. His words were such that we find it impossible to understand how anyone who supports the message of Pope Francis could object to them.

Sarah McDonald, in her account of the dropping of a female Episcopalians priest from the list of preachers at the Galway Novena, recounts how Anthony Murphy, editor of Catholic Voice, takes credit for forcing this change on the organisers. In the absence of comment from Galway Cathedral, we must take Mr. Murphy, at his word. He claims to represent an organization called Lumen Fidei. Mr. Murphy is also reported as having been involved in the recalling of the initial leaflet issued by the organizers of the World Meeting of Families and the amended leaflet in which a number of photographs that could suggest same sex relationships, and a sentence of the text, were deleted.