Father Flannery’s Flannel

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There has been some sympathy expressed for Redemptorist priest Father Tony Flannery (above) in light of the Vatican’s attempt to silence him over his support of women’s ordination and Church teaching on sexuality.

A voice of enlightenment from the priesthood supporting teh wimmin and teh gays, you say?

What does he have to say about clerical abuse victims?

The common assumption today is that the experience of sexual abuse does almost irreparable damage to a child, which will impact on their whole life. It would appear to be classified as the worst form of abuse. But can we be sure of that?How does one measure the damage done to a child by one form of neglect or abuse more than another?

Oh.

Does it strike anybody that it is a bit strange that we are devoting so much time, money and energy to inquiring into the abuse of children half a century ago when there is so much that is unsavoury in the lives of children today?

Ah.

The other obvious anomaly, beginning to be highlighted by some commentators, is that all the inquiries are into the behaviour of Catholic Church institutions and people, even though their abuse, dreadful as it was, is only a tiny fraction of all the abuse of children that happened in the past.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Rite and Reason and Reality. Tony Flannery C.S.S.R. Redemptorist (Marie-Thérèse O’Loughlin, Goldenbridge39)

(NYT)

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