A long-simmering row between the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland over the sharing of communion has resurfaced following a strongly-worded condemnation of the practice by Pope John Paul.
In an encyclical letter On the Eucharist and its Relationship to the Church, released by the Vatican yesterday, the Pope expressly forbade Catholics from receiving communion in non-Catholic churches.
Expressing alarm over what he called "unacceptable" practices, he also reminded the church's members that only priests can celebrate Mass and that divorced Catholics who remarry cannot take communion.
Church of Ireland figures expressed disappointment at the document, while the Catholic Church welcomed its contents as a vindication of the much-criticised stance taken by the Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, against inter-church communion.
In December 1997, the Archbishop rounded on the President, Mrs McAleese, for receiving communion at a Church of Ireland ceremony at Christ Church Cathedral, describing such an act by a Roman Catholic as "a sham".
Father Martin Clarke, spokesman for the bishops, said the encyclical "endorses" what was said by the Bishops' Conferences of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales in their 1998 One Bread, One Body teaching document on the Eucharist. "One of the perceptions at the time was that the bishops of these islands were being particularly strict on this issue. But the encyclical shows this is the universal teaching of the church," he said.
The Church of Ireland Archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven Gordon Linney, described the document as "an honest statement by the Roman Catholic Church it won't surprise anybody in terms of its content".
But he said he was "disappointed in this sense that it is restated at a time when there are other such serious issues facing the Christian Churches and which are causing all of us problems."
He noted there was tension between the churches on the issue of ecumenism, "and I think it probably arises to some extent out the fact that churches generally in the West are under a lot of pressure, and often people tend to become conservative in that setting."
The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev John Patterson, was similarly unenthused by the document. "Open communion is not something the Church of Ireland has ever called for. I think that would just make us indifferent to differences between faith but we have always felt in recent years that sharing communion on particular occasions can be a help in bringing us closer together," he told RTÉ Radio's Today with Leo Enright.
The dean added he could give "lots of examples" where the Catholic Church's teaching and its practice were far from identical.
It was "common knowledge", for instance, that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, an Anglican, had received the Eucharist with his Catholic wife on many occasions, including at Westminster Cathedral.
Speaking on the same programme, Father Arthur O'Neill, administrator of Dublin's Westland Row Church, rejected the argument that the Catholic Church was being "insensitive at a time when we are trying to sort things out in the North of Ireland". It was "as if the church's teaching on the Eucharist was specifically focused on this island off an island" off the north-west coast of Europe, he remarked.
"It's a universal law of the Church that's being stated The Church of which I am a member doesn't adopt that policy of softly-softly. It believes it has an understanding of the truth that has to be stated in a way that's real."
In the 78-page encyclical, the Pope wrote that "It is my hope that the present encyclical letter will effectively help to banish the dark clouds of unacceptable doctrine and practice" .
