Tony Flannery

On Wednesday evening of this week I attended the launch of Mary T. Malone’s new book, The Elephant in the Church.
It was a special evening. A large crowd gathered in Marianella for the launch, which was done by Geena Menzies.
Mary T. is a wonderful speaker, clear, precise and highly entertaining. The book charts the history of what she calls ‘woman Christianity’. Her thesis is that almost from the beginning Christianity has been written and designed by men, for men, and with men in charge.

Since I got involved in the reform movement in the Church with the ACP some five years ago I have attended many meetings and gatherings on various aspects of reform. Last night’s meeting in Clare, organised by the Killaloe Forum on the Diaconate, was probably the most hopeful of them all.
First some background:
Two years ago the diocese organised a listening process. By all accounts this was both extensive and very well done, and resulted in the drawing up of a Diocesan Pastoral Plan, which was launched about a year ago.

The story of the effort by the bishop of Killaloe, Kieran O’Reilly, to introduce the permanent diaconate in his diocese continues to break new ground, and set an example for other places
The latest development is that the bishop has decided to put the decision on hold while further discussion takes place. He deserves great credit for making this decision. How often have we seen Church authorities stubbornly stick with decisions even when they were obviously wrong, because they felt they could not publicly admit that they made a mistake.