Courtney McGrailDear Editor, When I was received into the Church last year after a lifetime as a practising Anglican, I made a profession of faith which committed me to “believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God”.
This profession is the standard one for converts to the Church and (I hope and trust) I made it with complete sincerity and without any equivocation.
Your recent interview with Mary McAleese (IC 12/11/2015) makes it clear that she could not make such a profession unequivocally were she a candidate for reception into the Church. It is obvious by her own admission that she is at odds with the Church’s teaching on a number of questions.
In the interview Mrs McAleese states that “the Catholic Church is woven into me and I relate to it…”. A few years ago I could have said that Anglicanism was woven into me, but I came gradually to realise that on the one hand I believed those doctrines which are taught by the Church but are not part of Anglican teaching, and that on the other hand those beliefs which are held in common by Catholicism and Anglicanism are better proclaimed and preserved by the former body than the latter.
Does Mrs McAleese believe that there are two classes of Catholic – cradle Catholics who can pick and choose among the teachings of the Church and converts who are obliged to accept everything? Is this an approach she can justify in logical and principled terms? Perhaps she, on reflection, will come to realise that while Catholicism may be woven into her, her religious beliefs and values are really those of a liberal Anglican.
Yours etc.,
C.D.C. Armstrong,
Belfast,
Co. Antrim.