FROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND NEWS


Irish priests may boycott new Missal


Sarah Mac Donald


THE LARGEST body of Catholic priests in Ireland has said it is consulting on whether to boycott the new Roman Missal. Fr Sean McDonagh of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said the group was considering taking the action after this week’s announcement by the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, that the Church in Ireland would be introducing the new trans- lation on the first Sunday of Advent. Referring to the decision by some clergy in


Australia and the United States to boycott the new Missal, Fr McDonagh said that if some members of the Church were permitted


to use “the Pius V Missal” because they couldn’t in conscience use the novus ordo, then he didn’t see why Rome couldn’t accommodate people who say they can’t “in conscience use this new one for theological reasons”. He added: “Am I going to go into a nursing home where everybody is over 80 years of age and when I say, ‘The Lord be with you’, tell them no, it is ‘and with your spirit’? [These are] people who are barely able to respond to what is going on around them. These are pastoral situations and unfortunately bishops very often don’t take them seriously because they have never experienced them.” Last month, the ACP met the Irish bishops and requested “suspension of the implemen- tation [of the Missal] so that priests and people could be properly consulted”. A mem- ber of the hierarchy pledged an official response to this request. However, Cardinal Brady made the announcement about the introduction of the new translation on Monday at the launch of plans for the fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin due to take place in June 2012. There has been speculation that Pope


Visitation examines theologians’ orthodoxy


OFFICIALS CONDUCTING the Vatican’s investigation of child protection in Ireland have questioned moral theologians about their adherence to church teaching, writes Elena Curti.


According to Dr Patrick


Claffey, an academic based in Dublin, teachers of moral theology in seminaries and houses of formation have been


asked to produce copies of their lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations to check that they are offering orthodox instruction to future priests. Particular attention has focused on teachers at the Irish College in Rome and at Ireland’s national seminary, St Patrick’s, Maynooth. The part of the apostolic


visitation visiting seminaries


and institutes of theology has been led by the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan. Dr Claffey writes in this


week’s Tablet that the visitators’ line of questioning closely follows the guidance in their working document or instrumentum laboris relating to the formation of seminarians. The document states that they should cover all


aspects of priestly formation and that “attention will be reserved for the intellectual formation of seminarians, to examine its fidelity to the Magisterium, especially in the field of moral theology”. Dr Claffey quotes an unnamed source as claiming that the visitators are asking for strict adherence to church teaching. (See Patrick Claffey, page 16.)


Cardinal Burke to speak to group critical of bishops


ONE OF THE Church’s highest-ranking prelates is to be the keynote speaker at a con- ference for a traditionalist group that has repeatedly alleged that the Bishops of England and Wales are diluting the Catholic faith, writes Christopher Lamb. Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Church, is to address a con- ference of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice on 18 June at Westminster Central Hall in London. The following day, he will celebrate Mass at the Brompton Oratory, London, possibly in the old rite. It is also expected that he will wear the cappa magna, the long, red watered silk cloak usually worn by cardinals and bishops to celebrate the old Mass. Cardinal Burke was poised to visit London


36 | THE TABLET | 12 March 2011


in 2009 but Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster invoked canon law to prevent the then arch- bishop from celebrating Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Westminster Cathedral for the Latin Mass Society (LMS). Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said he wanted one of the auxiliaries in Westminster to celebrate the Mass and the LMS rescinded its invitation to then Archbishop Burke. However, as a cardinal, the American prelate, who is vociferously pro-life and in favour of rigorous catechesis for young Catholics, is able to visit any diocese in the world without permission from the local bishop.


Cardinal Burke was one of the first American bishops to say that Communion


should be refused to politicians who have voted in favour of abortion and he regularly celebrates the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice have accused the hierarchy of England and Wales in recent years of not overseeing the “proper” teaching of Catholic faith in schools. “We wanted to invite Cardinal Burke because he is a great figure in the Church and everything he says is so good. He speaks out very clearly on all sorts of things: on pro- life matters, the Church, the faith. I know he is interested in England,” Daphne McLeod, the chairman of the group, said. Mrs McLeod has been a vocal critic of the “Soho Masses” said at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, in central London, for gay Catholics.


Benedict XVI may visit Ireland for the cele- bration although Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin played down any suggestion of a papal visit. “There are no plans in place for a visit of the Pope at this moment,” he said. “The Pope has been invited but [his] pro- gramme has not yet been decided.” He added: “The Pope is clearly committed to the path of renewal that is being taken by the Irish Church to address the problems of the past. If he is to come to Ireland it will be in that context of renewal.” Fr McDonagh criticised the decision by the


International Eucharistic Congress to charge an €80 (£69) registration cost to participants, which he said would “make sure that those who can’t pay don’t get in”. However, the general manager of the congress, Anne Griffin, said that the equivalent fee when the event was held in Quebec was €240 (£204). She added that the organisers had “really tried to keep the cost down very low. We don’t want the cost to be prohibitive for anybody”. The Eucharistic Congress will take place from 10 to 17 June 2012 in Dublin and is expected to attract 80,000 people.


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