Tony Flannery

Now that the proposed Synodal Assembly is coming into focus, and the Irish Bishops, at their next meeting taking place in June, are due to appoint a committee who will be central to the organisation of the event over the next few years, we need to be thinking clearly about what is being proposed.

For myself, I would love to see this whole event being a success, because I believe the future of the Church in Ireland will depend to a fair degree on how successful it will be.

In my most recent book I wrote about how the Church has created problems for itself, and for believers, by defining doctrines at particular times in its history, and declaring that they have to be held by all the faithful for all time. Since we are living in an evolutionary world that is by its very nature changing and developing, and since doctrines are constrained by the knowledge and understanding of the particular time in which they were defined, it seems to me inevitable that a doctrine defined many centuries ago will makes less sense as time goes on.

I wrote this article, hoping that after nine years Reality magazine might be willing to take a risk and publish it. It didn’t get in, despite the best efforts of the acting editor. The ultimate authority question – “Did you get permission?” – was enough to keep it out.

Judgment or Forgiveness

The courage, and the commitment, of Pope Francis is a source of wonder to me, generally for the past eight years, but especially now.