Bells, maybe but no smells in Irish Church

BY SIM014 CALDWELL
IT WAS FOR many years a joke that Liverpool rather than Dublin was the capital of the Irish Republic.
But soon some Irish people might feel just as at home in
San Francisco, for their government has embraced the creed of political correctness to such an extent that it has proposed a ban not just on smoking in public places but also on the burning of incense in churches.
In their zeal to supplant RC with PC, bureaucrats want to ban incense because they believe it can cause cancer.
But the move has far from incensed the sensitive Irish Catholic bishops who are concerned about the effect the traditional practise could have on children. "Obviously anything that sends a cloud of smoke into a child's face is seriously something that should be looked into," said a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Dublin.
Fr John McCann, master of ceremonies in Dublin, said there was a growing awareness in the Irish Republic of the potentially harmful effects of incense burning.
He said: "For example, in a large church building where there is plenty of space, I would be less worried. "But in a small church building you have to be particularly aware, particularly if there are servers suffering from asthma."
Jim McDaici, a transport Minister, said he was not antiChurch, anti-smoke or antiincense.
But he said: "There is a serious aspect to this. We all know that carbon is a carcinogenic agent, and wherever you have smoke, you are actually looking at carbon molecules."
John Ryan: Page 7