The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, yesterday appeared to reopen the controversial question of inter-communion when defending the recent Catholic teaching document on the Eucharist, One Bread, One Body. Repudiating criticism that the teaching document, issued last autumn, had run counter to the spirit of the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland, Dr Connell said: "The attempt to politicise the Eucharist once more by setting our recent pastoral letter (One Bread, One Body) against the current peace process is deeply ironical in the light of the centuries of a state-imposed Eucharist".
Archbishop Connell's remarks would seem to be a rejoinder to those, including the Taoiseach Mr Ahern, who had argued that the timing of the One Bread, One Body document had not helped inter-religious dialogue in Northern Ireland. The remarks, too, might revive the controversy prompted by the decision of the President, Mrs McAleese, to take Anglican communion at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin in December 1997.
Dr Connell made his remarks in Rome during a homily that vigorously defended the role of the Catholic Church in modern Irish society. He underlined the crucial historical role played by the Catholic faith in the formation of an Irish identity while at the same time expressing confidence in the Irish church's ability to find new leadership in its mission.
The homily was delivered at St Patrick's Augustininan Church in Rome where Dr Connell concelebrated mass with the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, and the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, as well as 24 other members of the Irish Hierarchy. The Irish bishops are in Rome this week for the traditional "ad limina" visit to the Holy See and to Pope John Paul, a visit which normally occurs once every five years but which, for various reasons, has not happened since 1992.
The "ad limina" visit is undertaken by all the bishops of the Catholic Church and it affords them the opportunity to report back both to various Vatican departments and, above all, to the Pope himself about ongoing developments in their evangelical mission.
This week's "ad limina" (literally, to the threshold) visit by the Irish bishops is perhaps one of the most delicate of modern times since the bishops' reports will have to reflect not only the changing socio-economic face of the prosperous, "Celtic Tiger" Ireland but also the crisis currently faced by the Irish church in relation to declining Mass attendance and vocations and, of course, the national controversy prompted by the series of sex and child molestation scandals that has rocked the church in the 1990s.