9-17 UnFictional: Me and the Holy See
Teresa and Helene were two spirited girls who loved to
terrorize their neighborhood with silly pranks. One day, on a lark, they decide
to cover the local convent with toilet paper. The girls loved the nuns, and
were sure everyone would get a big laugh out of it. The stunt quickly spirals
out of control, and ends with one of the two girls learning a quick lesson
about discipline and forgiveness.
Producer Julia Botero recorded
and edited her mother telling this story from her childhood.
Then, Father Tony Flannery seems the very picture of an Irish County priest.
That's until you learn that he's made a career of writing critically about the
Catholic Church, on controversial topics like contraception, divorce, gay
rights, and women in the priesthood, for starters. His critics call him a
hypocrite or a heretic... or worse. For awhile the church tried to ignore him,
but Tony Flannery knows how to work the media and he kept turning up the
volume, until one day he got a phone call -- the kind you just don’t want to
get, whether a Catholic priest or a regional sales rep. It was the home office.
The Vatican.
This story was produced by XRAY.fm News Director John Sepulvado, and edited
by Jacob Conrad.