Athenry-based priest, Fr. Tony Flannery is to speak publically today on his threatened excommunication from the Catholic Church.

The Redemptorist priest is to speak at a press conference in Dublin this afternoon.

Fr Flannery, who was suspended by the Vatican last year, said he was told by the Vatican that he would be allowed to return to ministry only if he agreed to write, sign and publish a statement agreeing, among other things, that women should never be ordained as priests and that he would adhere to church orthodoxy on matters like contraception and homosexuality.