On April 23 at 5pm, Fr. Neil O’Donoghue will offer us a lecture on the topic “Did Early Christian Ireland have a Unique (‘Celtic’) Liturgical Rite?”
Location: Caldwell Auditorium,
The Catholic University of America School of Theology and Religious Studies 620 Michigan Ave., N.E. Washington, DC 20064
Reception will follow
Here is a short abstract of the talk: While the category of Celtic Rite is not accepted by any mainstream liturgical scholar today, it is still alive and well in the popular imagination. Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue endeavors to examine the roots of the theory of a “Celtic Rite,” the influence of first Anglican and later Roman Catholic self interests in maintaining this Rite’s existence, and the conclusions that can be drawn on the subject today. Fr. O’Donoghue proposes that the theory of a “Celtic Rite” has actually impoverished both the study of early Irish liturgy and the field of general early medieval Western liturgy.
