Irish Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said the Church should be “restructured and destructured” in order to bear more effective witness to the Gospel.
“Newness and life will not come out of a Church which still wants to look on itself as an institution of power, even a renewed institution, or from a Church which is simply a focal point of organised doing good or social reform,” Archbishop Martin said.
The archbishop of Dublin said the church must “witness more concretely to the message of Jesus”.
“We have to live in such a way that the energy of life and vitality which spring from Jesus’ Resurrection can really touch our hearts and change our church,” he said.
Speaking in Dublin’s Pro Cathedral, Archbishop Martin said a renewed Church would be “pro-life in the fullest sense of that term”.
“If Christians have a passion for life then they should be in the forefront in the fight for life, at every moment of its existence . . .
“We have to defend the right to life and we must at the same time always accompany that defence with a commitment to ensure that all can live their lives with a level of dignity worthy of the Lord of life in whose image they have been created,” he said.
Archbishop Martin said Christians should be driving forces for a society in which young people receive reasons for hope.
“We have great young people but our years of prosperity have not left them a legacy of hope,” he said.
The Dublin-born archbishop had a series of Vatican appointments, including the Holy See’s permanent observer at the United Nations Office in Geneva, before being appointed coadjutor archbishop of Dublin in 2003. He succeeded as archbishop in 2004.
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Image: RTE News
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