Women’s Ordination Worldwide Stands in Solidarity with Tony Flannery
For Immediate Release: September 17, 2020
Fr. Tony Flannery is long-time friend and ally of Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) and today we stand in solidarity with him as he resists the Vatican’s attempts to punish him for his advocacy for women’s equality and ordination in the Catholic Church.
In drawing attention to the tragic litmus test of obedience(*) from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Tony Flannery does a great service in shining a light on the misogyny and homophobia that so preoccupies and taints the official Catholic church. His courageous commitment to upholding his conscience is a model of pastoral leadership the institutional Church so desperately needs more of.
WOW calls on Pope Francis, the CDF and the rest of the male leadership in the Vatican to get a grip and free themselves from the demons of discrimination. In their pursuit of Tony Flannery, a popular and influential priest, they again show their fear of Catholics growing in awareness of the bogus theology that bans women from ordained ministry. We call on clergy everywhere to speak out with conviction for radical equality, the way that Tony Flannery has dared to do.
* (1. Reservation of the sacred priesthood to men alone; 2. The moral liceity of homosexual practices; 3. The legal recognition of marriage between persons of the same sex; 4. ‘Gender Theory’)
Press contacts:
Kate McElwee: +39 393 692 2100; kmcelwee@womensordination.org
Miriam Duignan: +44 7970 926910; miriam.duignan@wijngaardsinstitute.com
Therese Koturbash: +1 204 648 5720; t.m.koturbash@gmail.com