The Church of Ireland Bishop of Cashel and Ossory has said the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, is owed an apology following the recent controversy over Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.
In a sermon during Mass at St Mary's Catholic cathedral in Kilkenny at the weekend, Bishop John Neill said "real ecumenical progress depends on careful preparatory work and above all on sensitivity. It is sad that a recent ecumenical gesture in relation to St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin came across as insensitive, and almost threatening to Archbishop Desmond Connell.
"The archbishop was very gracious in his own response, and an apology is owed to him for the manner in which he was placed in an impossible situation."
Bishop Neill is chairman of the Church of Ireland committee for Christian Unity. The Mass at St Mary's was to mark the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Dr Connell was formally invited by Dean Robert MacCarthy of St Patrick's to have Mass said there. On December 23rd Dr Connell declined the invitation. It had been indicated to him that saying Mass at St Patrick's would be offensive to members of the Church of Ireland, he said.
In a separate letter received on the same day, Dr Connell invited Dean MacCarthy to attend the opening ecumenical service of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at Dublin's Pro-Cathedral tomorrow. Expressing disappointment Dean MacCarthy said "an opportunity for moving things on a bit" had been missed.
In a statement on December 27th Dr Connell said that contrary to reports he had not been invited personally to say Mass at St Patrick's. The invitation had been to celebrate Mass at St Patrick's on weekdays as a service to Catholic tourists, he said. Should tourists wish to participate in the Mass, "ample opportunities are already available in the city churches, even in the vicinity of the cathedral", Dr Connell said.
He had declined the dean's invitation "out of consideration for these circumstances, for the importance of the reverence we observe towards the Mass, and for the sensitivities already expressed in comments by members of the Church of Ireland".
Responding, Dean MacCarthy said Dr Connell had not addressed the chief reason for the invitation: "to make a small start in sharing St Patrick's with the wider Christian community".'
