The Church of Ireland
Diocesan Press Release

On this eve of the feast of St Peter the apostle we remember the words of our Saviour Christ to Peter and to every Christian down the ages: “Do you love me?” (John 21.15). It is because of our common love and commitment to Jesus Christ that we have come here this evening to this cathedral church. Indeed as you yourself said in your homily at the celebration of your recent golden jubilee of ordination: “Such love is more than human love, it is a sharing in the love of the Father for his Son. And it is that love of the Father for his Son that fills our hearts and enables us to share in the mission on which the Father sent his Son.” It is love such as this that unites us together on this memorable occasion.

We are united also in our common heritage in Archbishop Laurence O’Toole, patron saint of the diocese. We stand here in the cathedral which, with meticulous care, he had planned to build. He saw his mission as a reconciler ­ bringing together the Hiberno-Norse and Anglo-Norman traditions which events of the day had imposed on his country. Sadly, he never lived to see his dream accomplished. More than fifty years were to elapse until, at the time of his canonisation in 1225, his heart, entombed in a metal casket, was brought back to the cathedral and the city he loved. Here it remains to this day.

Laurence had known not just the pains of political divisions, but also the very real pain of division between Christians. The great schism between East and West had already happened a century before he was born. And four hundred years later those who succeeded him in faith would know further the pain of division as the Western Church itself was rent asunder at the time of the Reformation. The legacy and the hurt of that division on this island are regrettably still alive and well. A minority on both sides has expressed in sectarianism and in terrorism its frustrations and its total inability to talk one to another. They forget it’s good to talk. By talking we sometimes discover just how much it is we hold in common. Archbishop Laurence, I think, would have agreed.

More than at any time in recent centuries Christians in the past fifty years have felt more able freely and charitably to share and to express together the sadness of their Christian divisions. When Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey together established ARCIC (the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission) they were initiating a new way of reconciling difference. They were inviting both our Communions to seek a way forward that would bring us reconciliation in faith ­ in accordance with the Gospels and with ancient common tradition. The Lord’s high-priestly prayer was “that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent  me” (John 17.21). The Commission is still working to achieve the task both pope and archbishop set for it and so we must continue to pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance on all its deliberations, as well as on those conciliar bodies that must evaluate its proposals.

Our joy this evening, however, on this eve of the feast of Peter ­ the weak Peter who became the strong Peter and the leader of the first Christians in Rome ­ is to greet our brother in Christ, Desmond. Now Cardinal Connell, he has become a member of that Sacred College which from early days has been the Pope’s closest council of advisors. Dublin has rejoiced in your elevation. Speaking for myself and for the dean and chapter of this ancient cathedral body, it is our delight to be a part of these celebrations and to greet you in the name of the Lord. We pray that the Lord may ever fill you with that love of Christ, which is the gift of the Father through the work of the Spirit.

Your Eminence, as a small token of our good wishes and prayers, I have pleasure in presenting you with a copy of the new history of this cathedral church