Sir, - All the sound and fury unleashed by President McAleese's visit to Christ Church has overlooked one significant fact: until quite recently the churches of the Anglican Communion tried to maintain exactly the same discipline as the Roman Catholic Church does on the subject of inter-communion and for much the same reasons - that Eucharistic Communion is only for those in full communion with each other and is therefore the goal and fruit of Christian unity, not a means to that end.
Why did the Anglican communion abandon that position? Quite simply, because the troops on the ground wouldn't wear it and proceeded to make up their own minds as the Catholic laity are now doing in steadily increasing numbers. In the same way, artificial methods of birth control were denounced at the Lambeth conference of 1938 but warmly welcomed at the Lambeth Conference of 1948. Is this a case of Anglicanism being "carried away by every wind of vain doctrine" or could it possibly be a willingness to listen to the consensus fidelium - the actual experience of the people of God?
Even a cursory acquaintance with history shows that all institutional churches are concerned to control the beliefs and practices of their adherents. I have just been reviewing a book by Patrick Fagan about the plight of Roman Catholics in the Ireland of the 18th century. Essentially the question was whether they should abjure the authority of the dethroned Stuarts and swear allegiance to the new powers that be. The Pope said that they should not, but a significant number of priests and laity made the required declarations under the 1704 and 1709 Acts and then got on with their lives. By 1774 all Catholics were being encouraged to accept an Act which required much the same thing.
As Dr Fagan remarks, "once the political heat had been removed from the equation, it was no sin at all for a Catholic to take the Oath of Abjuration in order to obtain a degree from Trinity College, Dublin following the 1793 Relief Act." Ironically, once the political heat was re-inserted it became once more a sin for Catholics to attend TCD and continued to be so until the early 1960s.
So what's new? - Yours, etc.,
Provost of Tuam, Taylor's Hill, Galway.