This past Easter, three Irish Augustinian priests concelebrated Mass with a priest of the Anglican Church of Ireland in Drogheda to commemorate the 1916 Easter Uprising. Of course, Catholic priests can’t and shouldn’t concelebrate Mass with non-Catholic priests because we are not in communion with one another. Oops, did they think no one would notice?
Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, primate of Ireland, conducted an investigation and has issued a statement that basically says that the Augustinian province and three priests apologized for their actions.
The three Augustinians involved - Fr Richard Goode, Fr Ignatius O’Donovan and Fr Noel Hession - having reflected on the seriousness of their actions, have written to the Archbishop of Armagh, Archbishop Seán Brady; to the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto; and to Fr Robert Prevost, the Prior General of the Augustinian Order, who is resident in Rome. Their letter apologises unreservedly for the ill-considered celebration and gives an absolute commitment as to future conduct in matters liturgical.
And that’s that? What about the repercussions of the event? Is someone going explain to Irish Catholics why this was a bad thing?
Goode, O’Donovan, and Hession must have known what they were doing was a violation of canon law and Church teaching. Are there any penalties? Is someone going to address the root causes of this violation? Or is it all going to be swept under the rug.
Perhaps this is all being dealt with privately, out of the public eye, but since this was a very public act of defiance using the Church’s public act of worship shouldn’t the resolution be similarly public?
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