Edward Flannery

Who was Edward Flannery?

Edward H. Flannery was a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, and the author of The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, first published in 1965.

Fr. Flannery was the first director of Catholic-Jewish Relations for the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, a position he held from 1967 to 1976.

Throughout his career, he fought against anti-Semitism and defended the State of Israel and the Jewish people against attacks on the local, national and international levels. Through his work he displayed great sensitivity to issues of the Holocaust and strong promotion of education of the history of anti-Semitism, both for the Jewish and Catholic communities.

Flannery spoke in hundreds of churches, synagogues and other settings to promote an understanding of the work of the Second Vatican Council and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops concerning the Church’s bond with the Jewish people. He was also the President of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, and a consultant to Secretariat of Inter-religious Affairs.