no more "one for the road"
for irish priests
From THE BBC:
A church-state dispute over the unlikely subject of drink-driving could be looming in Ireland. Speculation that authorities, on both sides of the border, might be contemplating a zero-alcohol limit for drivers has raised fears among Catholic priests because drinking consecrated wine at Masses could put them over the limit. The Catholic priesthood in Ireland is suffering from a shortage of new recruits, meaning that some priests now have to serve several Masses a day, much more than when the priesthood was a more popular vocation. But drinking consecrated wine is part of the Catholic Mass ceremony, so serving more Masses means drinking more of the religious wine.
Father Brian D'Arcy - perhaps Ireland's best-known Catholic priest - told BBC News Online that such an approach would be "risible" and would mean priests saying several Masses would be unable to drive legally.
"We want a law that allows people to drive and not drive people off the road. We want a law that's applicable and reasonable, not risible. Nobody in their right mind would want that. At the moment, you wouldn't go over the limit, but if they reduce it to zero it would hardly be possible to say multiple Masses and not break the drink-drive laws," he said.
Plans in Croatia to bring in zero alcohol limits for drivers prompted criticism in the largely Catholic country in 2004 from the Catholic Church who said priests would have to be provided with transport to perform religious services.
West Belfast priest Father Hugh Kennedy feared the same might happen in Ireland. "It could lead to priests having to walk or cycle between Masses and in country areas where they have several miles to go they would have to take a lift or a taxi."
10 comments:
Perhaps the authorities are sick to death of listening to "Father" come up with the same old excuse?
"... priests saying several Masses would be unable to drive legally." So how much booze are these guys pouring into the chalice at a sitting? It's not as if they have "both kinds" to deal with, is it? Seems to be implicit in this argument that it's perfectly fine & normal to have Father saying mass in a condition in which he's unfit to drive. So at least one old stereotype holds true - every Sunday, across Ireland, the not-so-funny Dibley episode in which D. French gets stinking drunk before midnight mass is repeated.
PS Theologically speaking, it's perfectly OK for these guys to "go Methodist" and use the non-alcoholic stuff, is it not? It's not as if the loaded stuff in general use is by and large any great shakes. I have yet to leave the communion rail marvelling at the earthly qualities of what I have just drunk. 61 Petrus - that WOULD be Transubstantiation.
This seems quite silly. I don't understand how there could be a problem. As I recall, lay ministers are also allowed to consume leftover wine that the congregation doesn't finish after communion. It seems that there could be a "designated drinker" at each parish......
zero percent is pushing it a bit too far.
Go have two large glasses of orange juice from a carton and then take a breathalyzer test. You will come up as having consumed alcohol.
Often those carton containers of orange juice sit somewhere around 2.5% abv (2%abv). Considering that Amstel light sits at 3.5% abv you can see how easy it would be to trip a breathalyzer after breakfast.
What they don't need is draconian anti-alcohol laws. What they do need is responsibility on the part of consumers.
I know that it may not be popular among some to say this, but there is a good place for alcohol in society. Extremist measures solve nothing.
Ireland needs to invest in public transportation outside of Dublin and encourage more responsible drinking (And unfortunately Ireland's young people are said to be learning way too many lessons from England's young people on binge drinking).
I disagree with you completely, Dennis.
Extreme measures are exactly what are needed here.
I would keep the limits as they are (so the priests can finish off the communion wine and you can have a sociable half shandy or glass of wine in the pub). But anyone caught over the limit would receive ten lashes with the cat-o-nine tails, in the public square, followed by 100 hours clearing up road kill dressed as a pantomime dame. That should do the trick and the innocent don't get treated like they're morons.
"... unfortunately Ireland's young people are said to be learning way too many lessons from England's young people on binge drinking." Keep blaming THAT one on the English as well?
oh, lapin, when it comes to Ireland and the English there is just so much...
now I must go play some U2.
Can one not get one's Eucharistic Assistants to consume the leftovers?
D.P.
By the account of those of his grandchildren who remembered him from the 1880's and 1890's, Dennis, my Irish great-grandfather, who in his early days was a Maynooth seminarian, was a notable public drunk in later life, who on occasion drank away the pay-packet on which his family depended for the coming week. He did not learn this trait from the English.
"The Catholic priesthood in Ireland is suffering from a shortage of new recruits, meaning that some priests now have to serve several Masses a day, much more than when the priesthood was a more popular vocation."
Back when the Irish Catholic God was more "popular" too? ;-/
*****
So how much booze are these guys pouring into the chalice at a sitting? It's not as if they have "both kinds" to deal with, is it?
Lapin,
I think the think is, they pour as much wine in the chalice, as we Anglicans use . . . but then they don't have lay people who actually drink it! (Jesus' blood, that is---too bad transubstantiation doesn't remove the intoxicating properties *g*)
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