Sir, - Patsy McGarry's petulant attack on the bishops of the Catholic Church because of their reiteration of the rules governing the taking of the Eucharist (Opinion, October 1st) was surprising. He seems to put forward the idea that the Irish bishops could take it on themselves "to be generous" and to defy the Papacy and the dogma of the Church of which they are pastors as a gesture towards peace and reconciliation in the North.
In support of his argument he cites the fact that Tony Blair was able to receive Communion in a Catholic church in Tuscany (where there is no Anglican church), but there is no comparison to be made. I should think that the matter would be of little interest in Italy where the number of Protestants wishing to take Communion in a Catholic church would be infinitesimal and the number of Catholics wishing to receive Communion in a Protestant church non-existent. The fact remains that Tony Blair is precluded from receiving Communion in a Catholic church in Britain, as are non-Catholics in Ireland.
Patsy McGarry mentions approvingly a Catholic priest who recently took the Eucharist at a Protestant service in Ireland. Dissidents like this priest and President McAleese who in this regard defy the laws of their own Church in, no doubt, well-meant but ill-judged gestures towards ecumenism have only deepened divisions and caused hurt to many.
Mr McGarry ends his article by saying of the bishops' document: "Better were it not published at all and leave well enough alone." Such counsel is reprehensible. The bishops have a duty to instruct their flock. Fudging the issue would be a dereliction of duty on their part. - Yours, etc., M.M. Ireland,
Priory Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.