Cardinal Apologises For Remarks on Archbishop

Irish Examiner, November 01, 2001

John Breslin reports on Dr Desmond Connell's latest blunder, while Mícheál Lehane looks at the Cardinal's past gaffes.

CATHOLIC Archbishop of Dublin Cardinal Desmond Connell yesterday apologised for remarks made by him which, he said, appeared to denigrate his Church of Ireland counterpart.

The country's leading Catholic expressed his profound regret that he may have given that impression, and added it was never his intention to put down Archbishop Walton Empey.

Cardinal Connell described the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin as not one of the church's "high-fliers" and a person who would not have much "theological competence".

The remarks were made during an interview for the book, The Irish Soul In Dialogue, to be published next week by philosopher Dr Stephen Costello.

In the interview Dr Connell tied his remark about Dr Empey not being a high-flier with the judgement that "Protestants very often go for a very positivistic theology" - a more grounded thinking less inclined to deeper spiritual matters.

"Since the Second Vatican Council, we have been tending in that direction, unfortunately," Dr Connell said.

Archbishop Empey is currently on holiday and was not available for comment but Archdeacon Gordon Linney, from Dun Laoighaire parish, said the remarks could be interpreted as being hurtful to the church and to the Archbishop in particular.

The Cardinal's remarks are being seen as equating "high-fliers" with those who have a deep theological knowledge, thus insinuating that those with a more down-to-earth approach were not.

Cardinal Connell's background is more academic while Archbishop Empey is regarded as being a hands-on pastoral leader.

In a statement, Cardinal Connell said: "In the context of perfectly understandable differences in theological perspectives between us, I referred to Archbishop Empey is a way which might have appeared to denigrate him.

"I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that this was never my intention and I profoundly regret if such an impression has been given."

Archdeacon Linney welcomed the Cardinal's qualified apology but he described the remarks as a manifestation of a tendency in churches for a "certain element of intellectual snobbery".

The Cardinal also made reference in the interview to Trinity College - which until part-way through the last century refused to admit Catholics - relating to an event in 1988 that marked Dublin's millennium.

He said: "Trinity insulted me, and through me the Catholic people of Dublin, because we were celebrating the millennium of the city of Dublin and they invited me to come along and watch Donald Caird (the former Church of Ireland Archbishop) receiving an honorary degree.

"That's their own business, if they want to, but to celebrate the millennium of the city of Dublin by awarding the Protestant Archbishop with an honorary degree and leaving me sitting down, was a downright insult.

"So I have a certain view of Trinity. I think you will understand why.''

He also spoke of gay rights campaigner and former Trinity lecturer David Norris, now a member of the Seanad. In a section of the interview dealing with a thesis he had produced, Cardinal Connell said he had had to look up "what the angels had to say".

Subsequently, he said, he made a statement against the practice of homosexuality.

He went on: "Mr Norris said I knew more about angels than fairies.

"But the whole thing was based on solid research, which was recognised - except by Trinity."

Cardinal errors by Michael Lehane

* Cardinal Desmond Connell was appointed Archbishop Of Dublin after leaving his position as Dean of Philosophy at UCD, a position he held since 1953. Some of his more controversial teachings in metaphysics, the area of philosophy he lectured in, included a theory that proved angels could exist.

* His first major public statement came in 1992 during the abortion referendum. At the time he refused to observe the neutral position adopted by his colleagues. Cardinal Connell advocated a no vote to all three referendum proposals, unlike his colleagues who had issued a far more neutral statement.

* A year later, the Cardinal found himself back in the public arena again, when he claimed on RTE radio that he never used diocesan funds to compensate victims of clerical sex abuse. Later it emerged that he had given a loan of £27,500 to a priest accused of sexually accusing a young boy. The money given to the priest from a diocesan fund was part of an out of court settlement with a former altar boy in Cabra.

* In 1998, President Mary McAleese's decision to receive Communion in a Church of Ireland church, also sparked a strong reaction from the Cardinal. At the time he said it was a "sham" for Catholics to partake of Communion in a Protestant Church.

* In 1999, the Cardinal staunchly defended papal teaching on contraception. He said that a planned child is "more like a technological product." He also condemned in vitro fertilisation and other forms of reproductive technology.

* Cardinal Connell declined an offer from the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral to begin sharing the Cathedral with all Christian Churches in 1999.

* In 2000, Cardinal Connell's backing of the papal document, Dominus Iesus, which claims the Catholic Church is the one true church, set him on a collision course with Protestant Bishops. Dr Connell maintained the Vatican's view that the Catholic Church is the mother church and not a sister of the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian or Methodist churches.

* Earlier this year tensions between the Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church became strained here after Dr Connell said Anglicans were not respecting the faith of Catholics by inviting them to receive Communion in their churches.

* In February 2001, he said the unrestricted entry of immigrants was undesirable.

* In May the Cardinal expressed displeasure at a joint invitation from the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his partner Ms Celia Larkin to a State reception in Dublin Castle, to mark his rise to 'red hat' status.

* In June this year the Cardinal backed a controversial request by a Dublin-based school Chaplain Fr Martin Hughes, Chaplain at St Mac Dara's Community College in Templeogue, asked for people who did not attend mass regularly not to receive Communion at a graduation ceremony. Dr Connell said he was "simply implementing church discipline".

http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2001/11/01/story16156.asp