Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Eucharist

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Thomas Bridge

unread,
Jan 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/8/98
to

At 01:24 01/01/98 -0500, Pavel wrote:

> I heard that a brown cow walked into a pub in Cork, ordered a
>porter, and paid with South Korean won. Is that what you mean?

>On Wed, 31 Dec 1997, Jim Groark wrote:

>> > Did anyone hear about the problem in Ireland that is
happening with
>> > Eucharist sharing?

>> I heard that the (president....premier....prime minister?) of Ireland, a
woman
>> and a Catholic, has taken communion at a church of The Church of Ireland.

Okay - what actually happened was:

As some of you are no doubt aware, we recently elected a new President as
our previous one, the much liked Mary Robinson, was appointed UN
Commissioner for Human Rights. The role of the President is a
ceremonial role, much like that of the Queen of England, rather the
governmental one that Bill Clinton occupies.

Mary McAleese was elected after a Presidental election that was noticeable
for a number of things, including the successful campaign of Dana to get a
nomination via the back door of the County Councils, the fact that of the
five candidates four were women (and the fifth was a joke), and a desperate
rearguard attack on Mary McAleese accusing her of being a *Catholic*
(shock, gasp, horror), a Republican (not true - she is merely a Northern
Nationalist whose family has suffered from the violence of some Loyalists)
and from being from the North (which is true, but irrelevant. Jack
Charlton was English but if he'd run in 1990....).

McAleese, although being an outspoken Catholic (she was on record at one
stage as she used NFP, she was also one of the founders of the original Pro
Life Amendment Campaign and was the representative of the Catholic Bishops
at the 1980s Forum for Peace and Reconciliation), has not always been the
blue eyed little girl of the Castholic Hierarchy. In recent years, she
has spoken at Basic Conferences (the Irish Women's Ordination Group) and
wrote an article in the The Tablet in the Spring of 1996 which was less
than flattering of the Holy Father.

Not long after her election, she attended a service in Christ Church
Cathedral in Dublin in her role as President. While there she took
Communion. This was made headlines news the following day by the Irish
Times (Mary Robinson apparently never took communion in the Church of
Ireland - despite never even approaching the title of "Irish Bishop's Blue
Eyed Girl"). This lead to public criticism by Northern priest Fr
Denis Faul, and later by the Archbishop of Dublin, who said that for a
Catholic to take Communion in a non-Catholic church would be a "sham" [1].
At the same service, Communion was also taken by the Lord Mayor of
Dublin. The US Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, has also taken Communion
in the Anglican Church on a number of times, but nobody bothered to
mentioned it until we had a nationwide debate.

The debate has shown a number of things - most Catholics were completely
ignorant of the ban on inter communion - and further more most Catholics
don't even understand the reasoning behind it. Most Anglican clergy
want inter communion - it is less clear that most Catholic clergy do. 80%
of the population support it though.

Personnally, for me a completely ridiculous article in the "Ireland on
Sunday" was the ultimate proof that the Archbishop was right. The
Article, written by the Rev Ginnerly Kinnerly (Ireland's first women
"priest"), showed such a lack of understanding about Catholic Eucharistic
teaching that I feel the ArchBish was totally justified in his reaction.

[1] - I still can't believe anyone actually heard Archbishop Connell's
comment - made as they were on Radio Ireland. Non Irish residents needn't
get this joke.

T.

Thomas Bridge Webmaster, Hostmaster, Medianet Ireland
tho...@clubi.ie http://www.clubi.ie/~thomas/
"There are three kind of lies - lies, damned lies, and Microsoft Press
Releases".

Pavel Chichikov

unread,
Jan 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/8/98
to

If you tell a child that the consecrated wafer is the body of Lord
Jesus, the child, having no pre-conception about what a 'body' is, and
suffering from no insidious cartesian brain-washing between the ears, will
accept the statement as fact.
Those who are open to the presence of God, whether child or not,
will also accept the statement as fact.
Who's left? Eighty per cent of the Catholics in Ireland,
apparently.
Pavel
http://www.cc.utah.edu/~sayre

Ron Blevins

unread,
Jan 11, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/11/98
to

One of my little first communicants, upon being told that the
consecrated wafer is the body of the Lord said, "I think it's gross."
<g>

Theresa

Kathy Hutchins

unread,
Jan 14, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/14/98
to

Relay-Version: ANU News - V6.2.0 06/23/97 OpenVMS VAX; site vega.star-nets.net
Path: nntp
Newsgroups: catholic.fcml
Subject: Re: Eucharist
Message-ID: <34BCEACD...@regen.rg.iupui.edu>
From: Kathy Hutchins <ka...@regen.rg.iupui.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 11:41:49 -0500
References: <Pine.SUN.3.96.98010...@access4.digex.net>
<34B97D35...@onramp.net>
Organization: Regenstrief Institute
Nntp-Posting-Host: 134.68.31.40
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 27

Ron Blevins wrote:

> One of my little first communicants, upon being told that the
> consecrated wafer is the body of the Lord said, "I think it's gross."
> <g>

I've always wondered why *more* 7-year-olds *don't* have that reaction
-- but it seems to be pretty rare. Rachel certainly didn't have any such
notion.

Rachel's attempt, on the day of her First Communion, to explain the
Doctrine of the Real Presence to her 88-year-old Christian Scientist
great-grandmother was one of the biggest side-splitters I have ever had
the opportunity to overhear. 'Nana' kept trying to clarify -- "Now you
mean it's the *idea* of Jesus, isn't that it? You mean you are taking
Jesus' *love* into your heart, dear?" And Rachel, her innocent orthodoxy
stiffening her spine, insisted again and again, "NO! It's Jesus! All of
him!" I was dying.

My three-year-old is starting to get huffy because she's the only one
who doesn't get "a cookie," and last Sunday, on the way back to the pew,
bellowed at the top of her lungs, "Mommeeee!! Wanna widdle taste
pwease!"
------------------------
Kathy Hutchins
ka...@regen.rg.iupui.edu
------------------------

0 new messages