The Catholic Hierarchy should not be the least astonished that the majority of people have forgotten the central role of the Eucharist in Catholicism. The church of Rome has been so thoroughly deintellectualising and deceremonialising itself trying to retrieve the irretrievable - its former power - that it has slipped the memory of so many Catholics (if they were ever taught it, that is) that what defines the Catholic Church is not the utterances of the Pope, nor the passing opinions of Archbishop Connell, nor the regular - and highly enjoyable - little sermons we get from left-wing ginger groups in the Church about the need for higher taxes.
What defines Catholicism is the sanctuary light in Catholic churches everywhere throughout the year, save for two days after Good Friday. That light says that within the tabernacle the Risen Christ is corporeally - not symbolically - present in the communion wafer. Catholics believe that the actual substance of the wafer has been changed, transubstantiated, into the body and blood of the Saviour of Mankind.
Religious doctrine
It does not matter if you think this is ridiculous or incomprehensible. An unbeliever's understanding of such matters is perfectly irrelevant. Religious doctrine is not a matter for democratic assent, nor for dispute by those who do not understand it. It is barely a matter for discussion. Doctrine - which in large measure you accept on that largely forgotten word these days, faith - is a key to religious identity.
If you believe as a matter of faith - as Catholics traditionally have - that the host is the actual incorporation of the body of Christ, the importance of the Eucharist is truly awesome.
Traditionally, "Hoc est enim corpus meum" are words of chilling majesty. Protestants, largely driven by the Lutheran creed of consubstantiation, by which the wafer in substance is both bread and the body of Christ, tend to invest less significance in their Communion. Divine Service can take place without it. There is no equivalent, outside the loftier smells 'n' bells forms of Anglicanism, of the genuflexion, a symbolic prostration before the actual, real presence of the Lord.
Ridiculous? Perhaps - but no more ridiculous than Jews swaying before the Holy Wall in Jerusalem, or Muslims turning towards Mecca when the muezzin calls on them to do so. One interferes in these central forms of worship at one's peril. To apply the rules of logic to worship is to misunderstand - and often to insult - the mysteries which bind those who are united in divine faith.
Faith is inevitably mysterious. Otherwise, religion would be a matter for test-tube, scales and bunsen burner. But the Catholic Church has spent the past 30 years assuring those of its faith - remember that word, faith? - that it is far from mysterious.
Centrality of Eucharist
"Irrelevant" ceremonial was junked; "relevant" ceremonial, in a language people could understand, was embraced; and the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church was clouded by ecumenical mumbojumbo.
It is hardly surprising that people became confused, as Jews would become confused if rabbis started preaching that Christ was the Messiah and Muslims would be baffled if imams declared: "Rome? Mecca? Take your pick." The essence of the great religions of the world is what divides them, just as the differences between the kindred religions of the Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church give them their respective power; and the taking of Communion is fundamental to those differences. It is a matter of exquisite delicacy, and profound moral feeling: it is the heart of faith itself.
There is a good argument - a very good argument - which says: a Catholic might take Communion in the Protestant rite as a gesture of the greater oneness of Christianity and of the shared belief in the sacrifice on Calvary. If Catholics taking Protestant communion do not believe in the possibility of transubstantiation within the Protestant rite, they are simply consuming a piece of bread in friendship, and no harm is done; there is a symbolic fraternity in that Communion.
Catholic Hierarchy
But on the other hand, if by their taking of Protestant Communion they are perceived to be declaring that it is precisely the same as the Catholic Communion, they should not be surprised if the Catholic Hierarchy rather warmly disputes this. For the imputation must be that what has historically defined the priesthood of the Catholic Church - the sacrament of the Eucharist by which bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Jesus Christ - and which has been revered to the point of martyrdom over generations, is now publicly perceived to be a commonplace skill available to Church of Ireland clergy too.
If this is so, what difference remains between the two sets of clergymen, other than that one crowd tend to be called Cecil, and be married to Heather, and the other lot are called Sean and are fond of a drop? Is that it? Is that what the last 500 years of division within Christianity has been about?
In which case, these divisions will end in an amiably thin and sinless theological gruel without intellectual content, in which all forms of worship are equally valid, and all are equally unattended - for religions without central faith and binding doctrine soon cease to have adherents. And maybe that is a good thing. But do not be surprised if the guardians of the Catholic Church - or any other church - say otherwise.