'Inappropriate' for a Catholic to act as witness or best man at ceremony church does not deem valid
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
The Irish Catholic Church's director of vocations has warned Catholics about attendance at register office marriages.
Father Kevin Doran said participation in such a marriage, either as bridesmaid, best man or as witness, suggested tacit recognition of the marriage. The Catholic Church did not recognise the validity of register office marriages, he said, particularly where either of the couple may have been validly married before.
This was not to pass judgment on the couple, he said, but was a response on the appropriateness of a committed Catholic participating in or being present at such a ceremony.
Writing in Alive, Father Doran said Catholics needed to consider carefully whether their participation in a register office marriage was "in conflict with the truth. This would be particularly important for someone who is asked to act in a formal capacity as a witness.
"Nobody wants to give offence. But conscience is sometimes compromised to avoid embarrassment or hurt. In the final analysis a person invited to take part has to be responsible for his or her own decision."
He continued: "I would hope that good friends can be honest with one another without being offensive and without taking offence. Disagreement certainly challenges a friendship, but honesty is the best policy between friends".
Meanwhile, the professor of moral theology at St Patrick's College Maynooth, Father Vincent Twomey, has advised priests to be courageous in refusing Communion to people in irregular unions. "They should be spoken to first, then refused [ if they persist in trying to receive]", he said last night.
Referring to recent controversies of Protestants receiving Communion in Catholic churches, he was much more concerned about Catholics "traipsing up" to the altar even when it was known they rarely attended Mass.
He particularly blamed priests and theologians for a growing casualisation of Communion, explaining there was a need for more cathechesis (teaching of church doctrine) on the matter.
Father Twomey said last night conscience was about "a sensitivity in trying to find out what God wants. If you're Catholic and believe the Catholic Church is divinely constituted, you try to live according to its teachings."
This didn't make life easy, he said, as conscience was about doing what was right as opposed to doing what a person themselves felt was right. Just because everyone else was doing something did not mean you should go along with it, he said.
He did not agree with the view that because one had an informed conscience one could therefore do what one believed was right even if it conflicted with church teaching. This view, he felt, "fed into the culture of moral relativism" which had spread in recent decades.
Father Twomey addresses the issue in the current edition of the Irish Catholic.