Action call on ecumenism

WITH regard to the ecumenical Mass held in Drogheda on Easter Sunday, demonstrating just how complex and delicate the issues are, you write (Irish Examiner, April 20), using a broad brush: “It is believed to be the first time since the 16th century Reformation that a Protestant minister has celebrated a Catholic Mass.”

Many, if not most, Anglicans — members of the Church of Ireland, for example — regard themselves as Catholic. Not as Roman Catholics, of course, but as part of the broader ‘Catholic’ Church.

Many Anglicans tend to prefer the term ‘priest’ to ‘minister’ — the latter term being more appropriate in other, more ‘Protestant’ churches.

In the Church of England, more so than the Church of Ireland, it is not at all uncommon to find their principal liturgical service referred to as ‘Mass’.

At the very heart of the little 500-year-old difference between Anglicans and Roman Catholics are the issues of the Apostolic Succession and the validity of Anglican Holy Orders.

Anglicans tend to think there was no break in the validity of ordinations, that they, too, derive their mandate from the Apostles.

Consequently, if they are correct in that hypothesis, an Anglican priest is as authentic as any Romanist — and if one of them celebrates Mass, it is as valid as any celebrated by somebody who has his authority, say, from Maynooth.

To make doubly sure to be sure, some of them even went to what are called Old Catholic bishops (don’t ask!) whose right to ordain was never removed, and they could well have validity on that count alone.

So why could the churches not simply get together, appoint a joint committee of scholars, lawyers and theologians and sort it out? That is precisely what they did.

A few decades ago, such a committee was appointed. It wandered off into the cellars of the Vatican and though distant sounds of life were heard, it has, to the best of my limited knowledge, never been seen again.

The church primates are quite right to be cautious (though the petty-minded among us are somewhat amused by the way they are singing so closely together from the same hymnbook).

However, we live in a time, when the good news brought to us by Jesus is notable by its absence from the world. The division of Christians worldwide is a scandal.

With the greatest respect, humility and deference, I would call on the two archbishops of Armagh, like good shepherds, to send out a search party to find the lost committee and to extract at least an interim report from it.

Because time is limited and there is nothing like a deadline to concentrate the mind, I would ask all those who share these sentiments to call on their archbishops, bishops and pastors to deliver that report to us on or before the theologically very appropriate Feast of Whit or Pentecost. This year.

To the best of my knowledge, the Holy Spirit does not have avian flu.

Maurice O’Connell

19 Forge Park

Oakpark

Tralee

Co Kerry