The Provincial of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Ireland, Father Ciarán Mac Cárthaig, has resigned in protest at a decision by his Superior General to overrule plans to close its St Alban's parish, Hertfordshire.
St Alban's preceded the establishment of the (French) congregation in Ireland in 1912, and it was from there two French priests came to this island to found the congregation.
In a lengthy resignation letter, dated December 19th and circulated to congregation members in the Irish Province, Father Mac Cárthaig said that "as the longest-serving Irish Provincial, I am not going to be instrumental or tolerate the introduction of a form of direct rule from Rome."
He said the precedent set by the congregation's Superior General in Rome (Father Michael Curran, the first Irishman to lead the congregation, now serving a second six-year term), came "at a time when we are trying to face the hard realities of disengagement. His intervention is one of extreme interference from Rome."
Father MacCárthaig pointed out that the decision to disengage from the St Alban's parish was taken "after much consultation over five years."
He stood by the decision, he said, and accused Fathe Curran of "undermining the mandate of the Irish Provincial Chapter of 1999 in relation to disengagement."
The Superior General's decision is understood to have been influenced by a petition he received, signed by 37 priests, which opposed disengagement.
