THE CATHOLIC primate Cardinal Seán Brady is to attend the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London’s Westminster Abbey later this month.
The invitation to the event on April 29th, and its acceptance, have been described as “unprecedented” by a spokesman for Ireland’s Catholic bishops. The spokesman attributed the invitation to Cardinal Brady’s contribution to the peace process.
“He was the first [Catholic primate] to attend a Church of Ireland general synod and to attend the installation of a Presbyterian moderator. He was the first to meet members of the Orange Order as well as loyalist paramilitaries, and he was the first to meet the Rev Ian Paisley.”
The cardinal had also encouraged Catholics to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland, he said. Cardinal Brady presided at the funeral of Catholic PSNI constable Ronan Kerr, who was murdered in Omagh on April 2nd. Dissident republicans are believed to have carried out the killing.
Speaking at the funeral Mass in Beragh parish, Co Tyrone, which is in the cardinal’s own Armagh archdiocese, he said that “the people have said ‘no, never again’, to the evil and futility of violence”.
In an impassioned plea to parents and grandparents, he said: “I beg you, plead with your children and with your grandchildren, not to get involved with violence. Never let them be deceived by those who say that Ireland will be united or the union made more secure by war. They are wrong. It is an illusion.”
Last month Cardinal Brady welcomed the forthcoming visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Republic. He described it as “an important religious and civic event” and “a mark of the mutual respect that exists between our two countries”. It demonstrated the “bonds of friendship” between the Church of Ireland and Catholic Church in Ireland, he said.
Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper will also attend the wedding.
In March 2008 the Queen took part in the Maundy Thursday service at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh. She is supreme governor of the Church of England.
