Ecumenism at stake over communion issue - archbishop

The future of the ecumenical movement is at stake in the pressure to change rules concerning inter-church Communion, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, has said.

Writing in The Irish Times today, he says the decision of the President, Mrs McAleese, to take Communion at Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral on December 7th had "exposed some of the sincerely held differences between Catholics and Church of Ireland members".

"Inevitably," he says, "there is pressure for the rules to change and for a widening of the situations where inter-communion can take place and even for indiscriminate inter-communion.

"At stake, however, is not only the nature of the Eucharist but also the future of ecumenism and the ecumenical movement.

"Were the rules to be changed and the situations where intercommunion is allowed to be broadened, there could be a blurring of the boundaries about what we believe about the Eucharist and about who we are."

Dr Connell's comments follow almost two weeks of controversy which has included forceful declarations of Roman Catholic prohibitions on taking Communion in Protestant churches by the Professor of Philosophy at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Father James McEvoy, the president of St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon, Mgr Denis Faul, as well as Dr Connell himself.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, said remarks by senior Catholic churchmen were "to be regretted".

In today's article. Dr Connell says that "real ecumenism is about each church renewing itself, finding the depths of its own spiritual heritage and contribution, and from that richness, reaching across and building bridges with other churches and indeed with people of no faith".

On such an issue it was essential "to avoid denigration of beliefs sincerely and deeply held on any side".

He was "very concerned" that his use of the word "sham" on the Radio Ireland Last Word programme on Tuesday "was interpreted to mean cheap or shoddy". (On the programme he was referring to Roman Catholics taking Communion in Protestant churches.) This was not the case. What he meant was the dictionary definition of the word - "`anything that is not what it appears to be', since this is the problem when Catholics take Communion in other churches with which they are not fully united".

The nub of the question, he says, is that, as a Catholic, when he receives Communion, he is expressing the deepest part of his faith. "I am saying who I am. I am saying `Yes' to my membership of my church as well as to my God incarnate in Jesus and present in the Eucharist."

If he receives in another church, he is saying he is part of that church, that he is in communion with it. "This is manifestly not true," he says. It was in that context he had used the word "sham".

Dr Connell also expresses anxiety about the Protestant practice at services of inviting members of other churches in attendance to Communion. "Many Catholics have been uncomfortable with and even confused" by it, he says.

A senior Church of Ireland figure has said that he did not think Dr Connell "needed to be so strong and divisive" in his remarks of last Tuesday.

Canon John Bartlett, principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College in Dublin, said last night that political and church leaders were usually very careful about the language they used and that, in this instance, "there would be a lot less fuss if one unfortunate word had not hit the headlines".

He emphasised that for members of the Church of Ireland, Holy Communion was "very much the thing" and they also saw themselves as "very much of the apostolic tradition, whatever the Archbishop (Dr Connell) might think".

He believed that, by taking Communion in Christ Church Cathedral, the President was affirming her Christianity and was recognising that the State was not "coterminus with any one Christian tradition".