independent.ie/national-news/church-accused-of-using-fbistyle-tactics-to-watch-and-silence-priests-3073843.html
What is going on - I never realised there were so many priests not in line with the church’s teachings and the vatican?
Quote: "Jesus was a victim of those who wanted to silence him . . . They wanted rid of him."
What is wrong with these priests, this is madness, and no doubt one of the reasons for so many cafeteria catholics.
*Priests are being subjected to FBI-like attention from Catholic “agents” who want to silence anyone brave enough to voice their own opinions from the pulpit, a leading cleric claimed yesterday.
Fr Adrian Egan – the head of the Redemptorist Order in Limerick – criticised the Vatican and publicly backed Fr Tony Flannery, who is being investigated by Rome because of his liberal views.
Fr Flannery, an Athenry-based Redemptorist, who is the founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, has for the past 14 years written his opinions in the Redemptorist Order’s ‘Reality’ magazine.
However, the Holy See has now intervened, and his monthly column has been discontinued.*
*"The reality, too, is that, there are people sitting in churches on a daily basis that are almost listening to hear you express an opinion that might be seen as dissenting and they will report you.
“It’s a little bit back like maybe in the Hoover days in America, where there are kind of agents all around the place that are willing to lift a phone, or write a letter, to a local bishop or the Vatican, and say, ‘so and so did this’, and it may be of the most minor thing, and yet, they can be taken seriously.”
Drawing a parallel with the crucifixion of Jesus, Fr Egan said: "I want to be able to articulate what I feel and what I think about. We are now celebrating Holy Week this week and, in many ways, Jesus was a victim of those who wanted to silence him . . . They wanted rid of him.*
Zechariah Chapter 3
1Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, while Satan stood at his right hand to accuse him.
2And the angel of the LORD said to Satan,
“May the LORD rebuke you, Satan; may the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?”
3Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clad in filthy garments.
4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy garments, and clothe him in festal garments.”
5 He also said, “Put a clean miter on his head.” And they put a clean miter on his head and clothed him with the garments. Then the angel of the LORD, standing, said, “See, I have taken away your guilt.”
6 The angel of the LORD then gave Joshua this assurance:
7"Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you walk in my ways and heed my charge, you shall judge my house and keep my courts, and I will give you access among these standing here.
- “Church accused …” - sometimes this is Satan.
- “FBI tactics” - to some these would always be “BAAAAAD!” Why not “KGB tactics?”
Or would that make the WRONG point?
- “Watch and silence priests …” ?? No one should watch? No one should ever silence them if they teach “their own opinions” in place of true doctrine?
Actually where “the other side” is in power - faithful priests, lay teachers, seminary hopefuls etc. are being watched and silenced IMO.
In the above scripture Joshua is “the High Priest” - which would equate with the Pope or Vatican. This rather open break with authority makes Fr. Egan rather suspicious.
What ARE the “liberal opinions” so “courageously” spoken? Heresies? Certainly those things categorized as "heresies’ all began as liberal opinions - although some at first were not in contradiction to church teaching but overreachingly novel (and subsequently wrong) new theology.
“Liberal” need not be wrong. The Church has keys to bind and loose. That which it “looses” might seem to be a “liberal” ruling. These days the words “liberal” and “conservative” can have a loyalty proviso that seems to call one to pick a side.
Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Let’s Conservatively follow all of what He commands and liberally give our hearts to Him and serving our neighbors in love.
eek
And, yes, I am “stuck in a groove” of asking for the evidence of what someone is being accused of.