The Solitary Voice of Dissent by Martin Kay

Author:Martin Kay [Kay, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781622730926
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Vernon Art and Science Inc.
Published: 2016-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

… the less power an actor has, the more emphasis is placed on reason; and the more power, the less weight. Reason is one of the few forms of power that those without much influence still possess.

(1998: 132)

And repeated Redemptorist appeals to reason failed where Fr Flannery was concerned. A different discourse now prevailed and, for Flannery, that discourse had cut across the beauty, the simplicity, the humility and the Christian validity of the message of Vatican II, the one thing that made him stay and devote his life to ministry. And the way the power of the CDF had accomplished this had made him very, very angry.

Let us now consider, therefore, the question of subjugated knowledges. The first act of subjugation lies in the concerted reversal of Vatican II. The subsequent act, for the purposes of this book, lies in the attempt to suppress what Flannery had been saying in his articles and books41. The discourse of the Church, in the direction its discursive practices were now being guided, sought to replace that ‘heresy’. (Flannery himself talks of the secretive way in which the Vatican set about this work, a gross error of management, it might be claimed, which the wise manager or administrator would be ill-advised to replicate today: do not try and suppress such knowledges but find a way in which they can be aired, shared and calmly managed.)

Consider, therefore, the insurrection which followed Flannery’s ontological insecurity and growing concern. He and others who shared his concern channelled their efforts through the ACP which actually achieved, at the level of Parish Priest, a greater influence in Ireland than the voice of the Vatican itself. Without the benefit of Foucault’s teaching on historical reconstruction, we would not now be able to explain exactly why the CDF was trying to efface this particular discontinuity: we would not see that power/knowledge was again working beneficially to pursue its struggle for truth. Small wonder that the CDF insisted that Flannery should not attend the meetings of the ACP and that he should withdraw for extended periods of reflection and reconsideration.

But, of course, power/knowledge is not always a positive connection. Flannery now finds himself stranded and suspended. His domain has become ‘Limbo, 21st century style’. But at least, as I found, he can look at himself in the mirror. The Vatican, in contrast – and particularly in contrast with the compassion of Pope Francis – is looking suspect. And a widening number of observers are attentive to media leaks suggesting that conservative interests in the Church have been too strong for our current Pope to overthrow.

We said earlier that ‘domain’ is discourse stripped of its discursive trail, the pure description of the facts of the discourse at that point in time; the discursive relations might form part of this domain but the discursive practices did not. And that something in that domain gives rise to the actor’s dissent. In contrast with my own experience, Flannery’s dissent was actually directed at discursive relations, at the CDF’s despicable attempt to suborn his own personal belief as expressed through Vatican II.

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