Charlie Brown's Knock

Today is the 135th anniversary of the reported sighting of the Blessed Virgin at Knock, Co. Mayo in Ireland. A time, perhaps, to reflect a little on the role of this little village in the deep west of Ireland.

Over these 135 years Knock has had its ups and downs. It took a good while for it to become a place of pilgrimage fully recognised by the Roman Catholic Church. When I was young, the site was still a modest one but it nevertheless accommodated annual pilgrimages from parishes all over Ireland. It was our native version of Lourdes.

Then Monsignor Horan put it on the map with a new basilica and a church with as many confessionals as there are weeks in the year. And, in case our Lady ever thought of paying a visit but might have found the overland journey a bit stressful, particularly after reading Colm Tóibín's version of her autobiography, the good Monsignor had the foresight to install a world class international airport nearby. And if she took her time coming, sure that was alright, hadn't he had a visit from a reigning Pope, John Paul II, in the meantime.

So Knock has continued to thrive and in recent times has become a springboard for the holy thoughts of the Papal Nuncio, Charlie Brown. The Nuncio, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, seems to think there is nothing wrong with the church that a few prayers won't solve, so he has no time for even the most well intentioned critics, such as the Association of Catholic Priests. They criticise, so they are negative, so they have no part to play in the holy game. They speak of eucharistic famines, of tired and burned out priests, of replacing these with married priests, or God forbid, women priests, when all that is needed is more prayer and maybe an intensification of the forty hours adoration.

When you listen to the Nuncio, you might as well be hearing Pius XII, in whose reign I grew up and with whom I am well familiar. It's all prayer and holy stuff and devotion to the Blessed Virgin even to the point of ultimate delusion. All very depressing in a world that cries out for some practical changes on the ground.

Anyway, if the Nuncio asks me for advice on how to spend this anniversary, I would say he could do worse than read Eugene Hynes's definitive tome on Knock. It might give him a deeper understanding of the place and how it acquired its present holiness, and he might then be that little bit more disposed to listen to those, including the silenced, who, as well as being holy people in their own rite, do have the interest of the church at heart.

My review of Eugene's book is here, and I'm sure there is still a copy left in Hodges Figgis if the Nuncio is up early enough and has the odd €40 to spare.

A Question of Conscience

I first came across Tony Flannery in a piece of his writing on the website of the Association of Catholic Priests, of which he was a co-founder, offering the opinion that the then upcoming International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in Dublin would be an opportunity for the Roman Catholic Church to pursue the theme of repentance and humility and avoid any of the triumphalism which dominated the last Dublin IEC in 1932. A rock of a sensible suggestion, I thought at the time.

Did the hierarchy pay a whit of attention to this good advice. Not at all. They went out and got brand new bespoke uniforms (vestments to you) for all the clerical participants and had a right extravagant Communio Fest. Mind you, their use of media, including social media, was first class professional, really. Had the message matched up to the quality of the dress and the media we might have been getting somewhere.

The day after I first came across Fr. Flannery, I read a piece in the Irish Catholic newspaper which said he had been silenced by the Vatican and his regular column in the Redemptorist magazine Reality had been pulled.

There followed a good eighteen months when none of us knew what Fr. Flannery's status was, and in the course of which it came to light that other priests had been silenced, not least Fr. Seán Fagan, an inspirational theologian now ageing and in bad health.

Fr. Flannery eventually came to the conclusion that, despite various attempts on his part to satisfy the outrageous demands of the Inquisition (now the Vatican Curial Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - CDF), there was no satisfying them, so he unsilenced himself and gave interviews and wrote articles about his case, and he has now written a book which sums it all up. The book publishes the texts of his correspondence with the Superior of his Order (who was, in effect, a Vatican proxy) and it attempts to explain the context of the views and remarks of his on foot of which he was being condemned.

Among the reasons for his coming to the conclusion that he would never be allowed return to ministry, was the conviction that he was simply being used as a pawn in a wider Vatican game to undermine the newly formed Association of Catholic Priests, of which he was a co-founder and member of the leadership team, and whose independence scared the bejaysus out of the Vatican.

His book is a bloodboiling read, all the more so if you have heard him interviewed on radio or tv. How such a holy man could be so outrageously treated by the Church to which he had given some forty years of sterling service is unbelievable. The saga is a testimony to the unfitness for office of all of those he has come up against.

Funnily enough, the present Pope, Francis, seems to endorse this view in his recent interview. He says, among other things, that

the dicasteries [departments] of the Roman Curia are at the service of the pope and the bishops. They must help both the particular churches and the bishops’ conferences. They are instruments of help. In some cases, however, when they are not functioning well, they run the risk of becoming institutions of censorship. It is amazing to see the denunciations for lack of orthodoxy that come to Rome. I think the cases should be investigated by the local bishops’ conferences, which can get valuable assistance from Rome. These cases, in fact, are much better dealt with locally. The Roman congregations are mediators; they are not middlemen or managers.
[my emphasis]

And now that the cat is out of the bag, the courageous Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, is echoing these sentiments. Pity he didn't say this earlier, if that's what he really thinks.

Meanwhile the question now is: has Fr. Flannery blown it, or will he benefit retrospectively from the Pope's views. His own view is that the Pope's intervention has effectively emasculated the CDF and that his fate is now in the hands of his Redemptorist superiors.

Among the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which he has suffered in the interim was a crude attempt to impersonate and discredit him on Twitter.

With the help and advice of good friends and supporters, he got the imposter "silenced". Slight irony there?

ACP founders, (l-r) Frs. Flannery, Hoban and McDonagh

Anyway, the book is a great read. It is sold out at most outlets and is going into its second run, which should appear next week. I hope to see it going viral, translated into many languages, and on the curriculum of all seminaries (while such institutions last), first as a warning and eventually, hopefully, on the history shelves.

Silence of the Lambs

With apologies to Brendan Hoban and to the Lady Herself
I know Brendan is not far from here and my own great grandfather was involved in investigating Our Lady's original visit. He was RIC stationed in Kiltimagh at the time. I am still awaiting his report.

Meanwhile, you might like to read Fr. Hoban's book Where do we go from here? - The Crisis in Irish Catholicism and/or sign the petition to those rotters in the CDF to have Fr. Tony Flannery ungagged and restored to ministry.