The new Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, the Right Rev Michael Mayes, has said that, with his experience of ecumenism, he is now less dismayed by the recent Vatican document suggesting the true Christian identity is a Catholic one.
Bishop Mayes, who was installed as Bishop of Limerick at St Mary's Cathedral last Sunday, said when the Dominus Iesus document first appeared, he was dismayed at a culture which seemed to be repeating itself but was no longer applicable in modern society.
"In a sense it seemed to me to signify that the teaching authority in the Roman Church is, in some ways, a kind of prisoner of a particular kind of culture, a classical Latin culture."
However, there was a discrepancy between official Catholic teaching and what was happening in practice. While the Vatican did not recognise him as a minister, "on the ground you are treated as if you are".
His installation last week was attended by the Catholic Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, the Catholic Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Dr Colm O'Reilly, and the retired Catholic Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Francis McKiernan. "They treat you in many ways as if you are ordained, although the official theory is that you are not."
To advance the ecumenical movement, he said he would work "as far as possible" with members of other denominations.
"I think some of the issues facing the world face us all, issues of injustice, poverty, deprivation, debt. We can co-operate in all sorts of ways and worship together and pray together. I think a very good principle behind ecumenism is: we should automatically do everything together except that which we absolutely cannot do together."
Born in Maherafelt, Co Derry, he was educated at the Royal College in Armagh; Trinity College, Dublin; and London University, where he studied divinity. He was ordained in 1965 and served in Portadown and in Japan as a missionary.
He was rector of St Michael's Union, Cork, between 1975 and 1986, archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross between 1988 and 1993, and Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh for the past seven years.
He has now taken over one of the largest dioceses in the State. Stretching from Kerry to south Roscommon, it has 65 churches and up to 7,000 members. It takes in Clare, Limerick, north Tipperary, part of Galway and part of Offaly.
His installation in Killaloe will take place in St Flannan's Cathedral on November 26th.