Indeed, the institution Archbishop Okolo represents displays a breathtaking disrespect for human rights, trampling on them and believing it has the right to do so with impunity, even going so far as to threaten the victims of such gross violation of human rights that if they tell anybody about it, the punishment will be even greater.

Such was the situation of Fr Seán Fagan, a Marist priest who died in 2016.

Over his 60-year priestly ministry, Fr Seán Fagan's service to all God's holy people earned him the lifelong gratitude of those he helped.

Fr Fagan was a priest committed to the service of those he called "God's holy people".

Ambition-fuelled advancement within the church - careerism - was never his driving force - his whole focus was on mediating the prodigal love of God to all comers.

Over his 60-year priestly ministry, this service to all God's holy people earned him the life-long gratitude of those he helped, but also a fat file in the Vatican's doctrinal department, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

Fr Fagan never knew for sure who kept the CDF supplied with copies of his writings, comments, details of broadcasts, etc, from Ireland. But whoever they were, they were assiduous in keeping Rome appraised of the pastoral efforts of this Irish priest and not for any positive, affirming reasons.

Transgression

This exercise in spying and reporting went on for many years until 2008, when the CDF lost all reason and pursued Fr Fagan with a determination that trampled all over his natural and objective rights.

His transgression? In a letter to the editor of this paper, he tangentially touched upon the matter of women's ordination as one of several solutions to the shortage of priests.

But this was only one transgression in Fr Fagan's list of "sins".

He believed in the full acceptance of LGBT people, sacraments for married couples in second relationships, the right of couples to decide on the most helpful form of birth control, the full participation of women in church life and continual ecumenical dialogue.

As it is unlikely the prefect of the CDF was reading The Irish Times, the Irish spy was very active and attentive in supplying copies of Fr Fagan's work.

But Fr Fagan was a bigger and better man.

He refused to be browbeaten.

For him, consistent with the church tradition, conscience reigned supreme.

A formed and informed conscience was the continuing work of a mature adult, not the infantile uncritical appropriation of what the "pope says" or "the church says".

Conscience

He refused to write to The Irish Times and withdraw his comment, as the CDF directed, because, in conscience, he could not.

For his fidelity to conscience, he was coerced into silence for the remainder of his life with the threat of dismissal from both priesthood and his congregation if anyone found out, even without his co-operation. Continue reading

• Angela Hanley is an author of What Happened to Fr Seán Fagan? Published by Columba Books

Mary McAleese was speaking of the late Fr Seán Fagan, who died at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin last Friday.

For many years he was critical of Vatican stances on issues of conscience and sexual morality, notably in letters to The Irish Times.

In 2003, he published the book Does Morality Change? , for which he was censured by the Irish Catholic bishops in 2004, and in 2008 Whatever Happened to Sin?

He was first censured by Rome in 2008, and, in 2010, he was informed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) that he would be laicised should he publish anything it considered contrary to Church teaching, and should he disclose this censure to media.

Then in 2012, he was one of five Irish priests silenced by the Vatican.

In April, 2014, Pope Francis had all sanctions against the very ill Fr Fagan lifted.

It later emerged that in December 2013, Ms McAleese had written directly to Pope Francis asking that he personally intervene in the case.

Ms McAleese told The Irish Times she was "saddened by the death of that great questioning mind that was Fr Seán Fagan's".

"A brilliant theologian and thinker who brought great distinction to Ireland, his long and illustrious priestly career was blighted in latter years by being silenced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," Mrs McAleese said.

"His heart and spirit were broken but his fidelity to the Church and quiet acceptance of such an unjust fate won him even more admirers," she said.

Ms McAleese said the lifting of sanctions against Fr Fagan came too little, too late.

"A great and good man's life and his life's work had been ruined.

The former president said the priest had been "hounded" by forces "using byzantine processes with no regard for due process or human rights".

Ms McAleese wished Fr Fagan's legacy would be "an inspiration to restless inquiring minds who pursue justice and truth no matter what the personal cost".

Sources

• Irish Times
• Image: Irish Times

Society of Mary Superior General Fr John Hannan told CathNews that he is pleased the threat of further sanctions, stipulated in 2010, have been removed and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will no longer adjudicate on them.

Fr Fagan, 86, a moral theologian, was silenced by the Vatican in 2008 following the publication of his book "Whatever happened to sin?"

The Vatican advised him if any word of their actions against him reached the media he would be stripped of his priesthood.

The Irish Times reports that Pope Francis is believed to have intervened directly with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Fr Fagan's behalf.

Former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese is also thought to be directly involved.

The Irish Times learned that Mrs McAleese wrote to Pope Francis last December requesting he intervene. Receipt of the letter was acknowledged by the Holy Father's secretary.

Mrs McAleese, in 2012, criticised the Vatican's treatment of five silenced Irish priests, labelling their treatment as "dreadful".

She described Fr Fagan and similarly silenced Redemptorist, Fr Tony Flannery as "good men who have loved this Church with passion".

Others who also understood to have been approached to intervene on Fr Fagan's behalf are

• the Society of Mary,
• Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin,
• Archbishop Charles Brown, the new papal nuncio to Ireland, and
• Fr Timothy Radcliffe, the former head of the Dominicans.

As part of Fr Fagan's silence, the Ireland province of the Society of Mary was required to purchase all remaining copies of the book, and disassociate itself from his views.

In 2013, the Marist Fathers Ireland published a notice on its website saying that Fr Fagan's writings in the book "What happened to sin" do not have the approval of or represent the views of the Society of Mary.

The Vatican has also dropped its veto on the 1950s writings of the late Fr Lorenzo Milani, who argued that the Church of that time was more involved in ritual than faith.

Sources

• Society of Mary (NZ)
• Irish Times
• Irish Examiner
• Marist Fathers Ireland
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Michael V Hurley