Banned Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery plans to question the survival of the Roman Catholic church at a public talk in Galway shortly before Easter Sunday.
Fr Flannery (77), suspended from public ministry by the Vatican in 2012, intends to give his views on whether “religious belief as we have known it can survive in modern Ireland”.
He also intends to pay tribute to Pope Francis for “freeing up discussion, areas of study and the search for the truth”.
The Redemptorist priest had been disciplined in 2012 for publicly expressing support for women’s ordination and same-sex marriage and for expressing more liberal views on homosexuality.
Although he has been outspoken since his suspension and was profiled in a recent TG4 documentary, he has not given a public talk with a question-and-answer session in six years.