Sir, – Those Christians who suggest that Fr Flannery should leave the church are either being disingenuous, they are lying, or they are ignorant. It used to be possible to leave the church – openly and officially, and indeed vast numbers were lining up to do so. In response, Ratzinger saw fit to remove the procedure, declaring that it was not possible to leave the church.
I, and many others, would gladly “leave the church” if Ratzinger stopped acting like a petulant child. (Of course, his real concern is the fact that he’d be unable to misuse statistics to benefit the church if people “left” as they wish to).
Fr Flannery should not leave. He and his colleagues should take heart from the vocal public support, and push for further revolutionary change in what is currently a very sick organisation. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The dissident priests are putting themselves in exalted company (St Thomas, St Paul, St Joan of Arc etc) – or are being put there by their supporters. Have they lost lost all sense of proportion? They bring to mind the words of Mark Twain: “Homer is dead. Shakespeare is dead. I am far from well”! – Yours, etc,