‘We’re all in this together,” has been the refrain of the Covid-19 pandemic. This week the choir came unstuck when Church leaders publicly veered off tune from the Government’s songline on communions and confirmations.
he harmony between Church and State, which saw Churches willingly comply with Covid-19 regulations for 18 months, has finally frayed to breaking point.
It was Bishop Kevin Doran, of Elphin, who set in train this public challenge to the Government when he announced his intention to defy the ongoing ban on communions and confirmations in his diocese in last week’s Irish Independent.
What we now know, thanks to Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s letter to priests in Dublin, is that the country’s four Catholic archbishops had already written to the Taoiseach, forewarning him that the celebration of the sacraments might resume in some parishes from mid-August.
That correspondence elicited no response from the Government. Not for the first time the bishops were left smarting from this “cavalier approach to communication”, as Archbishop Eamon Martin described it at the beginning of July. He was responding to the Government’s “grossly disrespectful” treatment of the Church over the way the postponement of communions and confirmations had been announced, almost as a second thought, in answer to a journalist’s question at a press conference.
The “we’re all in this together” dialogue is supposed to oil the collective cogs of support and buy-in. But on Tuesday, Dr Farrell wrote: “It is a matter of profound regret that there has been no engagement with Church representatives.”
The cogs of Church-State relations are grinding and no one seems bothered to tend them.
But it is not just the communications failures that have irked the bishops. It is also the inconsistency and arbitrariness around who can do what and where.
Dr Farrell said concerns that communions and confirmations may lead to family gatherings that breach public health guidelines on household mixing were “perplexing”. He pointed out that no such prohibitions are applied to other events, such as sporting or civic events, or other family occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries, or indeed to weddings or funerals.
Such double standards have led many, including priests and parents with children awaiting their special day, to conclude that in the absence of appropriate justification, these guidelines are “discriminatory”.
And it is also creating a logistical headache. In some parishes, the backlog of children awaiting sacraments is as up to 1,200. Meanwhile a new Amárach Research poll commissioned by the Iona Institute has found that 56pc of mass-goers think communion ceremonies should take place again.
In a rebuke to the Government, Dr Farrell has said parents should be trusted because they know what is right for themselves and their children.
However, not all within the Catholic Church are singing from the same hymn sheet on the resumption of Communions and Confirmations.
Augustinian priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan, who is serving in a parish in Co Tipperary, told the Irish Independent: “In reality most of these celebrations are purely secular events and God is an optional extra to many Catholics. I would go so far as to say that the celebration of these events is often in inverse proportion to belief in them.” He wants the ban to remain in place for now.
On the other hand, Fr Joe McDonald in Co Kildare revealed that he is baptising children who at this stage are toddlers because their ceremony has been postponed for so long.
“I married a couple last week and it was their fifth attempt to hold the wedding,” Fr McDonald said. “There are parishioners looking for communion for very personal reasons. I’ve been asked to hold a ceremony because: ‘Father, we’re not having any party; this little fellow’s granny has cancer – she is not well. We want this to happen before she gets sicker.’ These things are important to people and it is not good enough to simply say you can wait. Wait a while: OK. Wait indefinitely: no. We will not wait indefinitely.”
Most people can see the logic of careful plans being given the green light by the bishops when sporting events, concerts are allowed and bars have reopened.
As Dr Farrell told RTÉ’s News at One yesterday:
“It’s OK to have a bash in the Merrion Hotel with 50 people present. But it’s not possible for parents to take their child in to receive the sacrament. That is difficult for me and for priests and for parents.”
