The Archbishop of Dublin has described the concelebration of an Easter Sunday Mass, by a Church of Ireland minister and three Catholic priests at the Augustinian priory in Drogheda, as "a very serious matter". Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Dr Diarmuid Martin, speaking after the episcopal ordination of Dr Denis Brennan as Bishop of Ferns in Enniscorthy yesterday, said he did not believe people should take individual decisions in such matters and that the Eucharist was "not to be the occasion for short-cuts". He was reluctant to say any more in case what he might say would prejudice the outcome of any inquiry which might take place.
On Saturday night in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, Dr Martin said: "The Eucharist is not to be manipulated for personal or social agendas. The pain of division is real, but that pain cannot authentically be overcome by short-cuts."
At a Mass to mark Benedict XVI's first anniversary as pope, he said: "Today we are often confronted, whatever their personal intention, with individuals who feel that they can create a new image of the message of Jesus on the basis of individualistic gestures, even outside the discipline of the Church.
"It is even sadder when, as in these days, the Eucharist is chosen as a vehicle for such individualistic gestures. The Eucharist is a gift; it is not ours to be used as any individual sees fit. Celebration of the Eucharist is an ecclesial act."
Quoting Pope Benedict, he continued: "We cannot have Jesus without the church he created and in which he communicates himself. He is always contemporary with us, he is always contemporary with the Church, built on the foundation of the apostles and alive in the succession of the apostles."
He added: "Ecumenical dialogue must go on with renewed vigour."
He said the pope had initiated a new series of talks at his Wednesday general audiences on "The Church built on the foundation of the Apostles as a community of faith, hope and charity".
In the first of these addresses, Benedict had stressed "how it is only through the word and witness of the apostles that we receive the truth of Christ, which is today to be found within the Church as a mystery of communion".
The pope takes to task "an individualistic interpretation of Christ's proclamation of the kingdom, specific to liberal theology".
The role of the 12 apostles and their successors was "to guarantee that between Christ and the Church, there is no opposition," Dr Martin said.
"The pope notes that the slogan, which we hear so often, 'Jesus yes, Church no', is 'totally inconceivable with the intention of Christ' and he concludes with a stark yet striking affirmation which should make us all think: 'The individualistically chosen Jesus is an imaginary Jesus'," the archbishop said.
Meanwhile, the Augustinian priest who concelebrated Mass with a Church of Ireland clergyman on Easter Sunday said yesterday that he felt that the majority had accepted the celebration in the spirit in which it was intended. Fr Iggy O'Donovan said that Easter 2006 marked a special anniversary for the two traditions on the island and he felt that "we made an appropriate gesture".