The President, Mrs McAleese, has been strongly criticised by a senior Catholic academic for taking Communion at the Church of Ireland's Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin last Sunday.In a letter published yesterday in the Belfast paper, the Irish News, Father James McEvoy, professor of philosophy at St Patrick's College Maynooth, said he would find it "repugnant if she should ever again abuse the august office which she occupies, in a way which would once more embarrass the Catholic Church, by giving scandal to its members".
Observers could not remember such a frontal attack on a serving president since Mr Paddy Donegan, then minister for defence, criticised President Cearbhall O Dalaigh in 1976, causing the president to resign.
Father McEvoy said Mrs McAleese "is inhibited by the nature of her office from pursuing any private agenda she may happen to have; she is no longer a private citizen. She has infringed upon this condition by receiving Communion in a Protestant church.
"The President has been elected to office; she does not need to earn plaudits in the South, either by flouting the authority of the Catholic Church to which she belongs, or by employing religious ceremonies in order to widen her popular appeal."
Father McEvoy, a former Queen's University Belfast professor who comes from Larne, Co Antrim, continued: "Goodwill and friendship to all are subject to no limitation or restriction. . . However, a president who might decide to implement a liberal, do-it-yourself, two-fingers-up-to-the-bishops agenda, is a different matter entirely. Besides, we have had that already, it is not even new: her predecessor did something similar in regard to the Pope."
He recalled that Mrs McAleese, writing in the Tablet earlier this year, had "likened the Irish bishops collectively (admittedly in their handling of clergy convicted of child abuse) to Pontius Pilate" and "expressed the view that the Pope has woodworm".
"As a feminist, she wants women to be ordained as priests; the solemn restatement of the church's position by the Pope himself does not deter her from repeating her opinion. Evidently she is accustomed to the robust expression (even in public) of her opinions and her dislikes. She gives no sign of caring about the hurt and pain she has caused. Maybe the time has come for her to build another bridge, one that will bring her back to her fellow Catholics."
The Dungannon priest, Monsignor Denis Faul, said the President compared badly with her predecessor, Mrs Mary Robinson, who as a Catholic married to a Church of Ireland member, never asked if they could receive Communion in the Church of Ireland "as a family".
Mrs McAleese read a faxed copy of Father McEvoy's letter during her visit yesterday to the Irish troops serving in Lebanon with the UN and said she had no comment.
McAleese gave bad example, says Mgr Faul: page 7