Sir, – Ciarán Mac Guill (November 4th) and Domhnall O Neill (November 9th) have raised important and relevant questions concerning St Patrick’s Cathedral and the other historic Irish cathedrals. As usual, these taboo inquiries have been studiously ignored by the Protestant authorities in their letters to The Irish Times. Surely they deserve a reply.
The medieval St Patrick’s and Christchurch cathedrals were founded by the Catholic archbishops of Dublin for the celebration of the Mass and Catholic worship and this pattern continued – with some interruptions – until 1559.
St Patrick’s was dedicated by Archbishop John Comyn in 1191 to Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of her Nativity (September 8th) and St Patrick. The patronal festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary was last celebrated in 1558.
Following the ejection of the Catholic chapter of canons in 1559, the Catholic community continued in the 1560s-1570s at least to go on nominating canons and the principal dignitaries to St Patrick’s. One can still read the canons’ valuable contemporary testimonies as recorded in the Roman archival registers (Registri delle Suppliche). This rich fount of source material for late medieval and early modern Irish history is still ignored by Irish historians of the period. So Dublin Catholics did not throw in their ecclesiastical legal rights when faced with the flawed title deeds of Henry VIII and his successors.
The proposal to declare St Patrick’s a “national cathedral” or state cathedral is for Catholics an alien misconception theologically. This nationalist ideology dates from the Protestant reformation period when in the case of Ireland, British monarchs sought to nationalise and reduce the Church of Christ to a mere state church. Only Irish Catholics succeeded in defying Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I in this regard.
Why should the Catholic community of Dublin be expected to substantially support the running expenses of their former cathedral which has obliterated its Catholic character? The financial consideration is implicit in Dean McCarthy’s offer. Irish “ecumenism” continues to whitewash the religious past and doctrinal differences. It promotes misty historical amnesia when awkward and unanswered questions arise. – Yours, etc,