Sir, I can line up with almost everything Dr. Noreen O'Carroll said in her article headed "Incensed by the Church's attitude to women". But I am puzzled by one thing. Faced with the expected rejoinder of the "obedient to the letter Catholics" to her protest, that she can take the whole package or ship out", she insists that: "There is no way out ... Once a Catholic, always a Catholic and all that."
I wonder could she expand on the "and all that"? I too admire the "courageous priests" she mentions, and am privileged to call some of them my friends; and I appreciate that they give her hope. But "no way out", even for those whose present position is insupportable? In this ecumenical age, and at a time when I understand the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission's agreement on the eucharist has at last found some degree of approval in Rome, how can there be "no way out"? Who has locked the door and thrown away the key?
Please understand that I am not proselytising. Anglicans dread that, and I more than most. But Church of Ireland doors, and Church of Ireland sacraments, are always open to Christians of other denominations seeking the sacramental presence of Christ, whether for hope, occasion, for longer or indefinitely. The on condition that may be made is that such guests be baptised Christians and communicants in their own church. Many rank and file Catholics around the country accept this invitation on particular occasions, and this gives me hope for a truly ecumenical future. Very few would "cross the line" to membership on a permanent basis, unless (sometimes in protest at Ne Temere excesses) through marriage; but some have done so, including one who is now a priest of the Church of Ireland. I have no doubt that it took considerable courage.
As, I understand it, great courage is needed because membership of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has long been not only a matter of faith and family inheritance but a socio political statement of national identity. Is this why there is no way out"? Surely it is not still a case of "extra ecclesiam (Romanam) nulla salus?"
The Church of Ireland was certainly once seen as "the Church of the oppressor"; and so it was, arguably up to the time of its disestablishment, nearly 130 years ago. Dr. O'Carroll's words confirm something that I have sensed often enough before, that the Church of Ireland (and I acknowledge that there are problems with this nomenclature) is still instinctively seen as somehow alien and even inimical to Irishness, even by many of the most thoughtful and progressive Roman Catholics, despite the increased measure of theological agreement between our churches and the undisputed Irishness of our members, and that by a curious inversion of history it is we who are now ecclesiologically "beyond the Pale". (Some people would call that "karma"!)
If this is indeed so, it is a shame, because we have so much to give each other from the best of each of our traditions. And this country needs the very best that we can find between us.
All good wishes to her, anyway. And may her hopes regarding the magisterium's and the conservatives attitude to women, as well as mine regarding their attitude to fellow Christians, one day be fulfilled. - Yours etc.
The Rectory,
Timolin,
Co. Kildare.
