Archbishop is `deeply saddened' at inter-church communion row

The Church of Ireland is confident "of its Catholicity, its Apostolicity and its understanding and discipline concerning the Holy Eucharist," the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev Walton Empey, said last night. He was responding to comments made by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, and other senior Catholic churchmen which are perceived in Protestant circles as denigrating their Holy Communion.

The current controversy over inter-church communion "deeply saddened" him, Archbishop Empey said, but it was "essentially a problem for another Christian Communion (the Roman Catholic church)," and one which "it would be impertinent" for him and his church's members to comment on. He said the decision of the President, Mrs McAleese, to take Communion in Dublin's Christ Church cathedral on December 7th, which began the current debate, was "made by her in the exercise of her informed conscience".

What was happening now "must deeply pain the One `who so loved the world that He sent His only Son' ", he said.

Last night Church of Ireland sources indicated that members generally were "very unhappy" about developments in the ongoing controversy.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Catholic Bishop of Cork, Dr John Buckley, said yesterday that if a parishioner came to him seeking advice on whether to take Communion in a non-Catholic Church, it would be a matter for the individual's conscience. All he could do as bishop was to give the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on the matter, he said.

Complex matters were at issue, which were being interpreted by all sides involved in the church unity debate. He said: "I can only say that at local level there are excellent relations between myself and my Church of Ireland counterpart." He thought the issue had been raised out of all proportion. An editorial in the current issue of the weekly nationalist Andersonstown News, published in Belfast, has come out forcefully in support of the President, Mrs McAleese.

The Catholic bishops' comments on her taking Communion at Christ Church are described as "a telling indicator of just how far out of step with its flock the Catholic hierarchy is". The overwhelming majority of Catholics, it says, "are completely comfortable with such cross-denominational displays of Christian solidarity and wish we could have more of the same".

The bishops and Monsignor Denis Faul, it continues, harken back to "an unlamented pre-Vatican 11 era.

"We rightly shout out in anger when Old Testament zealots send a Protestant minister into exile for daring to cross the street to wish his Catholic neighbours well on Christmas morning, or when unionist MPs attending Catholic funerals stand around in car parks stamping against the cold rather than commit the ultimate blasphemy of entering the `lair of the beast'.

"Which is why we shouldn't keep quiet when the Catholic bishops espouse a similarly anachronistic brand of religion," the article concludes.