There was a certain predictability about the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, resorting to a dictionary yesterday in his article for The Irish Times on the current debate over inter-church Communion.

For this most academic and courteous of men it was an inevitable course of action, as he tried to diminish the unintended insult caused to Protestants by his use of the word "sham" to describe inter-church Communion where his flock was concerned.

Since Cardinal Cathal Daly stepped down as primate last year, Dr Connell has taken an ever more prominent role in the leadership of the Catholic Church in Ireland, articulating ever more frequently a straightforward orthodoxy on most matters. Where Rome is concerned it is a case of semper fidelis (always faithful) where he is concerned.

Philosopher more than theologian (though he did his doctoral thesis on angels), he was born 71 years ago in the Drumcondra suburb of Dublin. He is unique among his colleagues in the amount of time he spent as an academic.

At the a.g.m. of the Mater Hospital in Dublin recently he explained that the hospital held a special place in his affections as he had spent a month there as chaplain immediately after his ordination to the priesthood. It was his only experience of pastoral ministry, he explained.

From there he went to Louvain for further study, and then to UCD, where he was to remain until 1988. He was professor of metaphysics there when appointed Archbishop of Dublin in March that year.

His interventions in the current debate over inter-church Communion have been marked by an unusual lack of sensitivity, not least yesterday, when his dictionary definition of "sham" seems to have aggravated hurt on the Protestant side, as well as among more liberal Catholics.

Even his reference to the President taking Communion at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin on December 7th has been interpreted as an attempt to apportion blame. It had "exposed some of the sincerely held differences between Catholics and Church of Ireland members", he said.

As she stood in the pews at Christ Church that Sunday, singing the Credo in Latin from Schubert's Mass in G along with the splendid cathedral choir, it is doubtful whether President Mary McAleese anticipated the furore that was to come. It is doubtful whether anyone else present did either.

In a typically warm address the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev Walton Empey, commended Mrs McAleese's plan to make bridgebuilding the theme of her Presidency, while in his sermon the former Beirut hostage Terry Waite spoke of bridge-building between the peoples of these islands. The Warrington Male Voice Choir had come along to show that all this talk had more substance than aspiration about it.

An atmosphere of palpable goodwill pervaded the proceedings. It was made most manifest by the presence of the Dean of Christ Church, the Very Rev John Paterson, who had been awaiting a heart transplant for months and successfully underwent the operation days later.

Those of us in the media seats, sitting across from Mrs McAleese's pew, speculated what she might do when it came to Holy Communion. We were aware she had asked to attend the Eucharist in Christ Church on that Sunday as part of her plan to visit services of all the main denominations early in her Presidency.

We were also aware that her predecessor, Mary Robinson, had not attended a Holy Communion service in a Protestant church, and that she had never brought her children to the services she did attend.

Mrs McAleese was accompanied by her husband, Martin, and her two daughters, Emma and Sarah Mai. This took the Christ Church authorities by surprise. They had reserved places for the President and her husband only, with the result that a chair had to be found for Mrs McAleese's aide-de-camp, ColBernard Howard. It was placed in the side-aisle next to her pew.

Shortly before Communion Dean Paterson sat in the pew beside Mrs McAleese in a space which had been made vacant by the former archdeacon (of Limerick) Brian Snow. Acting chaplain to the President for the occasion, he sat with the McAleese family throughout the service.

When it came to Communion itself, Mrs McAleese did not so much glance as look deliberately towards the media seats. Then she rose from her pew, followed by her daughters and her husband, and all proceeded to take Communion. Across the centre aisle the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr John Stafford, was doing the same.

There could be no doubting the impact of these events on those present, particularly as Mrs McAleese is known to be a most literate Catholic theologically. Delight would be the most obvious word to describe the mood on all sides as she was introduced to the cathedral choir afterwards.

Probably its most dramatic illustration was a somewhat overwhelming embrace as Mrs McAleese greeted Dr Kenneth Milne, a leading Church of Ireland layman. He read the second lesson during the service, and had served on the inter-church working party on sectarianism which Mrs McAleese chaired.

That delight soon spread beyond Christ Church to include the loyal opposition within the Catholic Church. Praise was heaped on the President for a gesture which didn't so much surprise many within this group, except that it should have taken place so soon in her Presidency.

Theologians such as Father Gabriel Daly and Father Sean Fagan commended her action, and explained its correctness. Other widely respected Catholic figures, such as Father Austin Flannery and Mr Sean Mac Reamoinn, did likewise. The official church, however, remained dumb as Zachary. Off the record it was clear church authorities had been taken by surprise by Mrs McAleese's action. That soon gave way to annoyance, even anger, but silence remained the strategy. Publicly the only people willing to articulate it were Mgr Denis Faul and a Dublin curate, Father Ray Hannon.

They did so in terms which were brought to a new level by the Professor of Philosophy at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Father James McEvoy, in a letter to the Irish News yesterday week. It would appear that, rather than dissipating anger, the strategy of restraint by the official church had added to the intensity of anger felt at Mrs McAleese's gesture by those with a traditional Roman Catholic view of inter-church Communion.

Meanwhile, within Protestant circles a discreet charm, of the traditional we-must-avoid-confrontation-at-all-costs kind, dominated. It was a case once more of `don't mention the war'. But this was to change, beginning last Monday.

On that day the standing committee of the Irish Bishops' Conference met in Maynooth. It reaffirmed the line that interchurch Communion was not permitted for Roman Catholics, but couched it in such `soft' language as to avoid it being seen as censuring or embarrassing the President and to avoid damaging ecumenical relations.

Enter the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Connell, with a word. And the word was "sham". Last Tuesday evening he appeared in an hour-long interview with Eamon Dunphy on Radio Ireland's Last Word programme. Both men compared experiences of growing up in Drumcondra and of their church, with Dr Connell revealing a sense of humour which belied his austere, sometimes severe public image. He used the word "sham" to describe what Roman Catholics were doing by taking Communion in a Protestant church.

In another example of possibly loose phraseology on the same programme, he advised that Bishop Eamonn Casey should "get lost", like other retired bishops, on return to Ireland.

Members of the Church of Ireland were deeply offended by Dr Connell's choice of language and the impression it conveyed of his view of their Communion. The polite Protestant face began to grimace, and in a polite Protestant way spokesmen expressed regret and disquiet at the tone and content of Dr Connell's remarks.

Leading this response was the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, who in a carefully phrased statement to The Irish Times last Thursday allowed some of the pain he and members of his church were experiencing to be seen. Similarly with comments from spokesmen for the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches.

Probably in response to these statements, and concerned that his use of the word "sham" last Tuesday may have been misinterpreted, Dr Connell explained what he was saying in an article in yesterday's Irish Times. He had not used the word as meaning something "cheap or shoddy", he said, but according to the dictionary meaning of the word as " `that is not what it appears to be' since this is the problem when Catholics take Communion in other churches with which they are not fully united".

Where Protestants are concerned, Dr Connell has not so much clarified his meaning as deepened the insult, intended or otherwise.