History is made by Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral
Alan Ferris
http://scripts.ireland.com/search/highlight.plx?TextRes=mass&Path=/newspaper/ireland/2000/0816/hom18.htm
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By Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
The first Mass since Tudor times was celebrated at St Patrick's
Cathedral in Dublin on Sunday. Mass was last celebrated at the nearby
Christ Church Cathedral in 1690, prior to the Battle of the Boyne.
Last Sunday's Mass followed a request from 23 French Catholic tourists
who apparently had no knowledge they were making history. They made
their request to the cathedral authorities through their tour company,
the Joe O'Reilly Ireland Group of Blarney, Co Cork.
The Mass was celebrated in the cathedral's Lady Chapel by a Father
Goujeon who was travelling with the group. The last French people to
use the cathedral in this way were Huguenots who also held their
services at the Lady Chapel for 150 years after they fled France in
1666.
Dean Robert MacCarthy of St Patrick's last night expressed his delight
at the event and at being able to make the cathedral available to such
pilgrims. He hoped to offer "similar hospitality to any similar such
groups".
In an Irish Times interview in November the dean initiated controversy
when he said he was "considering offering the Roman Catholic Church
and one of the nonconformist churches (the Methodist Church) the
facility to have services of their own on weekdays".
He said "some of my Northern colleagues may be a little sensitive
about it" but he saw it as a way of broadening the cathedral's
ministry for tourists, many of whom would not be Anglican. "Visitors
are not just gawkers," he said.
Dean MacCarthy later wrote to the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr
Desmond Connell, proposing that Mass might be celebrated in the
cathedral on weekdays for Catholic tourists.
Dr Connell declined the offer. He said it was "difficult to understand
why this proposal was made and how it might be implemented". He added
that "tourists come to the cathedral throughout the day with a view to
visiting a historic building and its monuments and with very limited
time at their disposal.
"Should they wish to participate in the Mass, ample opportunities are
already available in the city churches, even in the vicinity of the
cathedral. I declined the dean's proposal out of consideration for
these circumstances, for the importance of the reverence we observe
towards the Mass, and for the sensitivities already expressed in
comments by members of the Church of Ireland."
Elaborating on the latter point, a spokesman for Dr Connell said
letters to The Irish Times following Dean MacCarthy's interview had
shown "a wide difference of opinion" within the Church of Ireland on
whether Mass should be celebrated at St Patrick's.
Dean MacCarthy expressed disappointment at Dr Connell's response and
said the archbishop had not addressed the chief reason for the
proposal - "to make a small start in sharing St Patrick's with the
wider Christian community." He said Dr Connell was "ignoring, in a
sense, the nub of the thing".
Commenting later on the proposal, the Church of Ireland Bishop of
Cashel and Ossory, the Right Rev John Neill, said Dr Connell had been
"very gracious in his response, and an apology is owed to him for the
manner in which he was placed in an impossible situation".
Dr Connell, currently in Rome, was unavailable for comment on the St
Patrick's Mass last night.