The Dungannon priest, Monsignor Denis Faul, has said no Catholic can receive Communion in a Protestant church, and that the law applies in the same way to "the Pope in Rome and President Mary McAleese as much as it does to Paddy and Biddy Murphy". On Sunday Mrs McAleese took Communion at a service in Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral. "We're on fundamental ground here," he said.
Mgr Faul, who disagreed with the President's action on Sunday and who was willing to do so publicly, told The Irish Times "the whole unity of our church is based around the Eucharist", while "the whole of the Reformation was that their Eucharist is totally different".
The Protestant churches had rejected the Mass as a sacrifice, he said: "It was the fundamental point of the Reformation". Catholics believed "the living, risen, and glorious Body of Christ was really truly and substantially present in the Eucharist under the guise of bread and wine, and offered in the sacrifice of the Mass". The Eucharist was central to the unity of the Catholic Church, he said. "It is why there is still just one Catholic Church, and about 500 Protestant churches".
Catholic Church teaching was "crystal clear" on the matter. There was no "splintering, blurring, breaking up, clouding". It all revolved around Communion, "and you can't be in Communion with two or three churches".
Earlier yesterday on the BBC's Talkback programme, Mgr Faul accused the President of breaching the Catholic Church's code of canon law on an "absolutely vital" issue.
"Eucharistic intercommunion" with Protestant churches was not possible.
He believed, however, it was unlikely any Catholic breaking this rule would be sanctioned because "the church was not much into sanctions these days".
The Augustinian priest, Father Austin Flannery, said last night that, while Mrs McAleese may not be covered by the letter of Catholic Church law in taking Communion at Christ Church, "she could claim to be following its spirit".
He pointed out that the Catholic and Anglican churches had come closer since Vatican II, and the 1993 Catholic Directory on Ecumenism allowed members of the church receive Communion from a non-Roman Catholic Church in restricted circumstances. These would include danger of death, but "it does leave the door open to `other cases' where there could be `grave and pressing need'," he said.
He recalled an old scholastic tag from pre-conciliar days, favorabilia sunt amplianda, meaning that rulings which are favourable should have their scope extended. He said he would see Mrs McAleese "as operating within that spirit". He expected she believed there was good reason to receive Communion in Christ Church, "and that the Eucharist was valid".
The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, who was reported yesterday as approving what Mrs McAleese had done, said last night he had been misquoted. He declined to comment on the matter.