In an Ireland where religious observances have lost much of their public significance and where sacramental and liturgical differences seem arcane to many, the gesture by the President, Mrs McAleese, in receiving communion at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday may not appear remarkable to some. But the great majority of those who attend services, whether in the Roman Catholic Church or the Church of Ireland, will recognise that she has taken a sizeable step indeed. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr John Stafford, also took communion at the Christ Church service.
Under Roman Catholic teaching - and in Canon Law - Catholics may not take communion in Protestant churches because, according to the 1994 Catechism, Protestant churches "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders". In pre-conciliar times it was recognised that the most severe spiritual penalties would attach to a breach of this rule by Catholics. Hence the spectacle, at the obsequies of President Douglas Hyde, of Catholic Cabinet members standing outside the doors of the church while his funeral service was conducted inside.
Mrs McAleese is, of course, a devout Catholic. She must have understood very well the implications of her gesture. She has reportedly taken Anglican communion before and she has "absolutely no difficulty" doing so again. If she has done nothing else she has thrown some sand in the eyes of those who wish to characterise her as ultra-orthodox or a hard-line, traditional Catholic. Rather has she confirmed that she is indeed a woman of complex and at times apparently contradictory impulses. She is for gay rights but against divorce. She is for women priests but against integrated education. She is progressive in her views of criminal and social justice but implacably opposed to women's right to opt for abortion even in extreme circumstances. She is a devout and practising Catholic but she is prepared to bypass a solemn prohibition of her Church's law in order to make a statement of reconciliation.
Some of her co-religionists will, no doubt, be dismayed at her action. But it will be interpreted by Protestants - especially Southern Protestants - as a generous and conciliatory gesture. Mrs McAleese declared that her Presidency would be about building bridges, and she has been at pains to explain that this must be a laborious and painstaking process. At Christ Church on Sunday she made a measurable start in building a bridge from her Presidency and her own tradition to that of the Church of Ireland. It represents a valuable, early signal of her style of Presidency and she is entitled to credit for it. She has shown imagination and courage.