Dear Sir:

If you may, please tell me the difference between "Roman Catholic" Catholicism and "Irish Catholic or Celtic Catholic" catholicism. I know very little about the origins of the Celtic Catholic religion except that it began as a monastic order. What are the fundamental differnces between the two, and does the Roman Catholic Church accept these differences? Thank you for your reply and may God bless.

Sincerely, Mary C. Bridges Honolulu, Hawaii bridgesmc1@aol.com

-- MARY CAROLINE BRIDGES (BRIDGESMC1@AOL.COM), September 22, 1998

Answers

Mary, though many people nowadays pretend that the Celtic Church was seperate from Rome this was a fallacy.Read St.Columbanas' letters to Pope Gregory the great c550 to see how close the relationship was.The real diffrences were minor;monstaic rules,the dating of Easter(the big diffrence),how to take confession(public or private).They were resolved at the synod of Whitby c.650 as told in Bed's History of the English Church where a vote was taken and the celtic rules lost.Since that time the Brit.Isles have always followed the Roman rite BUT they have ALWAYS been in communionwoth Rome.

-- Jack Bennet (EMRU1@aol.com), January 18, 1999.

The Cross Image?

-- JBC (JRA@JRA-ARCHITECTS.COM), January 18, 1999.

im just 13 i dunno. got that rite. k.

-- bobby (dancingdiva630@hotmail.com), November 30, 2003.