One of the three co-founders of the Association of Catholic Priests
(ACP) in Ireland is to step down from his leadership role while he
considers whether to remain in the priesthood.
Fr Tony Flannery,
who has been suspended from ministry and threatened with
excommunication by Rome for expressing views at odds with church
teaching, told The Tablet he would withdraw from the administrative team
at the association's AGM next month.
He said the next six months may
determine his future as a priest.
Speaking ahead of the launch
this week in Dublin of his new book, A Question of Conscience, the first
public account by a censured priest of how the Congregation for the
Doctrine of Faith deals with dissenting clergy, he said: "What does it
mean to be a priest if you are not allowed to minister as a priest?"