Last week the Vatican began an investigation of Fr. Tony Flannery, who has expressed rather liberal views as the founder of the now 800-strong Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland. In an opinion piece in the Irish Times today, Time to Free Church from Clammy Grip of Clericalism, Fr. Kevin Hagarty reflects on Fr. Flannery’s situation and muses on the place of liberal thought in the Catholic Church. Building up to his “clammy grip” comment on clericalism, Fr. Hagarty says, “Perhaps it is not surprising that the Vatican has moved to censure Fr Flannery. The Second Vatican Council promised an open and dialogical church, willing to engage with the secular world. Since the 1980s there has been in Rome a retreat from its reforms.”