Gesture of ecumenism stirs a public debate

WE expect a Dean of St Patrick’s to cause a stir, and the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy is no exception.

Without resorting to any authority higher than his conscience, he has extended a Christian invitation for the use of St Patrick’s cathedral to the seven former presidential candidates.

Since these seven included a member of MacCarthy’s congregation, Senator David Norris, and a former member of the IRA, Martin McGuinness, now Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland and, I believe, a Roman Catholic, we must admire his ecumenism. His invitation is a gesture of Christian reconciliation and compassion, especially in the light of the persecution of Protestants in Ireland, whether in 1641 or in the 20th century.