THE CATHOLIC Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has apologised to the founder of the Irish School of Ecumenics (ISE), Fr Michael Hurley SJ, "for some misunderstandings on the part of my predecessors".
He was referring in particular to former archbishop John Charles McQuaid.
Speaking at the Jesuit Conference Centre, Milltown Park in Dublin, at the launch of The Irish School of Ecumenics (1970-2007), a book edited by Fr Hurley, he noted that archbishop McQuaid's attitude to the ISE was "described laconically in the book as having become 'less negative and more sympathetic'."
Explaining he was "always interested in the development of dogma as witnessed in the minds of my predecessors", Archbishop Martin said he had recently "paid a rather rapid visit to my archives". There he had found that Fr Hurley had come to Dr McQuaid's attention in the mid-1960s "when he was invited to speak to the Dún Laoghaire Council of Churches".
"Msgr Boylan, parish priest of Dún Laoghaire, was consulted and rather sarcastically responded that 'lecturing to a Protestant gathering will do him [ Fr Hurley] no harm'."
There was, however, a concern that it might give rise to the risk of "non-Catholic periti being invited to lecture to our Catholic people".
Dr Martin noted that Msgr Boylan "reappears some years later in the archive, concerned about Fr Hurley's doctrine of original sin as being close to that 'advocated in the Dutch catechism and rejected in His Grace's [ McQuaid's] Lenten pastoral'."
Dr McQuaid felt he should impose an absolute prohibition on Fr Hurley speaking in Dublin, but this was resisted by his Jesuit superior Fr Cecil McGarry.
But, Archbishop Martin recalled, Fr Hurley "caused more anguish for Archbishop McQuaid when he, and I quote, 'at a meeting of the Protestant Theological Society in the liberal university Trinity College, joined with three Protestant divines in a tribute to the ex-priest and ex-Catholic George Tyrell'."
Archbishop Martin said: "I found a fading copy of the text of the offending lecture, the work of a very early photocopier. I will have to consult the approved manuals of moral theology to see whether in the interests of history I should have a modern copy made or whether I should rather allow such an offending lecture to fade away into literal obscurity."
He said that on being informed by the Jesuits of proposals to set up the ISE, Archbishop McQuaid responded: "It is not clear to me whether you are merely informing me or asking my advice".
Dr Martin said Jesuit provincial Fr McGarry responded "cleverly regarding this confusion, noting: 'I know that you will understand that the phrasing of my letter was such as not even to seem to commit Your Grace in any way with regard to the project'."
The archive provided "little evidence of a move from the "less negative to more sympathetic", he said. But, he said, a concluding paragraph of a letter of Archbishop McQuaid's read: "How your proposed school will make a significant contribution towards preparing 'one flock under one shepherd', that is towards conversion to the one true Faith, is God's secret."
Fr Hurley spoke of his "great sense of relief and joy and gratitude" as he listened to Archbishop Martin's "magnanimous apology".
