Martin (78) also discussed clergy sexual abuse and policies of the Church, including the ban on condoms during the AIDS crisis.

"I'd be very worried about consultations, which lead to frustrated expectations which don't take place. People's faith is damaged by a church which doesn't respect women's dignity," Martin said.

Martin also criticised Pope John Paul II's ban on condoms during the AIDS crisis, describing it as "bad theology."

"I think that it was bad theology.

"It's this idea of an extraordinary narrow dogmatic understanding of bringing principles and not looking at the broad circumstances in which the situation is taking place and the struggles that people have to face.

"It was one of the problems with the church in Ireland.

"We learned the rules before we learned who Jesus Christ was."

He stressed the need for a more compassionate and contextual approach to such issues.

Women weren't listened to

While discussing the clerical child sexual abuse scandals, Archbishop Martin highlighted the understanding of ordinary Dublin women who recognised the harm caused by paedophilia but often found their concerns dismissed by bishops.

"They (the women) saw the mess that their child got into, they saw in some cases how their child took their own life, and they went to bishops and they weren't listened to."

When asked what he would say to God on arrival at the pearly gates, Martin said:

"The only phrase I have is, when you've got that weighing scale there, take the 80,000 files I gave and that might bring me the right way."

His comment was a reference to the number of documents he handed the Murphy Commission when it was investigating how the archdiocese had dealt with allegations of clerical child sexual abuse.

Martin was speaking to Joe Duffy in The Meaning of Life programme.

Sources

The Irish Times

CathNews New Zealand

"We have to construct a mature Church" to attract parishioners, he says.

The question is how: how will the Church choose to reach out to people and define itself?

In his opinion, the Church will need to be very different to how it has been in the past.

"People will come through conviction, rather than being born Catholic."

Martin acknowledges that one of the difficulties the Church is facing at the moment is that activities are suspended because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.

Restoring activities is a must, he says - though this may require making changes - something Martin says he isn't "totally negative about."

"We have to move into a mode, we have to construct the church in a different way," he says.

He suggests efforts to attract parishioners means the question "Why do people leave the Church?" needs to be explored.

Martin says the fact that there are more civil marriage ceremonies than religious and that ‘no religion' was the second most ticked box on the Census, must lead the Church to some form of understanding about today's society.

"It indicates people's choice," he says.

"This [religion] isn't being forced on people - it's a choice. We have to give people a reason to believe, to attract people and construct a mature [church]."

Church property also needs to be considered.

Martin says it is "probably true," that some buildings, particularly larger ones could close.

In this respect he says the Church needs to "take a good long look" at exactly what it needs.

"Parish centres could be far too large for our needs," he suggests. In addition, some larger churches might close on the back of falling numbers, he says.

Source

• Independent.ie
• Image: Dublin Live

At Dublin's Pro-Cathedral on Sunday, the Archbishop said racist intolerance is always "an affront to the dignity of those who are its objects."

He said the Church must be a place where people are welcomed, respected and cherished even in their difference.

"Hatred and intolerance can never foster goodness and love. Hate language can never be reconciled with the teaching of Jesus. When believers and indeed Church communities become narrow-minded and judgemental, they leave people marginalised and unloved with their hope blunted and their dignity broken," he said.

Dr Martin also highlighted the growing polarisation within the Church and expressed concern over those who feel that they are zealously defending the Church while being intolerant and disrespectful to those with whom they disagree. Continue reading

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, says reopening churches for worship "has serious public health concerns and we have to make sure that we are ready for them."

One of the recommendations that has already been put to him is for Eucharistic Ministers to wear facemasks and disposable gloves when distributing Holy Communion.

Another option to ease congregation numbers and facilitate social distancing could be to remove the Sunday obligation so people could go to Mass any day during the week, he says.

In Ireland, restrictions on public worship due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been in place since 23 March, although many have stayed open for private prayer. In Northern Ireland churches are following the UK government's rules and are completely closed.

Under the Irish government's exit strategy from lockdown, Sunday Masses will resume on 20 July. Numbers at these Masses will be restricted.

Reopening the churches for public worship will occur during the fourth stage of the Irish government's five-stage road map for reopening the country.

One of Ireland's leading psychiatrists has criticised bishops for not actively lobbying the Government to restore public worship sooner than 20 July.

Writing in the Irish Independent this week, Professor Patricia Casey, who is a consultant psychiatrist and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry said the lockdown has been a huge spiritual sacrifice, in the interests of the common good.

"This makes the resumption of public services a significant event for Christians of all denominations and for other faiths," she said.

Casey also criticised a lack of information around a meeting last week between the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and three Archbishops.

"The bishops should advocate for the spiritual welfare of the people in the pews. They should not be sounding like Department of Health bureaucrats."

"Their passivity does not attract admiration but rather disrespectful glee from those actively hostile to religion," she said.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: The Tablet

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was speaking at a Mass Oct. 20 commemorating the canonization of John Henry Newman, the founder of what is now University College Dublin.

"Faith is always a seeking and Newman reminds us that that seeking continues, lifelong, in our own hearts and in our desire to understand the human project," the archbishop said.

"Obstacles to faith arise when we somehow begin to feel that we definitively have all the answers and others are to be judged as outsiders, or on the other hand, when we fall into the temptation to indifference, not even asking the questions." Read more

Diarmuid Martin, 74, the most influential Catholic prelate in Ireland, said in an interview with The Irish Times on April 22 that there's still "a lot of anger" about the way the Church has handled the abuse crisis "but you can't whitewash it." Read more

Martin has also called for a radical overhaul in the training of priests.

Outlining his vision for renewal which would include a "reduction and rationalisation of dioceses" and a "revision of the arcane workings of the Irish Episcopal Conference", Martin recalled the Apostolic Visitation to Irish dioceses announced by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2010 ‘Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland'.

Martin said: "It is well known that I was unhappy with many aspects of the Visitation and its results."

Despite being well-intentioned, Martin said "the visitation froze the renewal of the Irish Church for some years" and the results were "disappointing."

This led a number of dioceses being left vacant for years. In addition, some of the ideas of the visitation were put on hold, including the rationalisation of the number of dioceses.

"We need to take a radical new look at the formation of future priests. A culture of clericalism is hard to eliminate. It did not come out of nowhere and so we have to address its roots in seminary training. There is no way we can put off decisions regarding the future," Martin said.

At present Irish bishops are preparing to draw up a new programme for the formation of priests. The new programme will see seminarians spend more time working alongside priests in parishes.

Martin says at present the Church in Ireland is coming out of one of its most difficult moments in its history.

He said the Irish Church would have to live with the fruits of its actions and its inaction and with the grief of its past, "which can and should never be forgotten or overlooked."

While there was "no simple way of wiping the slate of the past clean, just to ease our feelings", he also stressed that the Church in Ireland cannot be imprisoned in its past.

From being the culture of an enlarged faith community into a heavily secularised culture, in Ireland faith no longer plays a major role in people's lives, Martin noted.

He also sounded a note of caution over Catholic education, which despite investment in the structures of school-based religious education and enormous goodwill, was not producing the results that it set out to achieve.

"We have great teachers in our faith schools. The system is also such that teachers who do not share the faith find themselves at times teaching something of which they are not convinced.

"There are fundamental fault-lines within the current structure for Catholic schools that are not being addressed and unattended fault-lines inevitably generate destructive energies," he said.

He added that future leadership must represent lay, clerical and religious, women and men, young and old.

"We all agree on this, but nothing seems to happen." As a result, he stressed, "The alienation of so many women only increases."

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: The Irish Times

Writing on his blog after the synod on the family in Rome, Fr Flannery noted that Pope Francis sees the synodal process as the pattern for the whole church.

Fr Flannery quipped that this is another example of Francis "stealing the [Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland's] best ideas.

"We [the ACP] have been calling for a synod of the Irish Church for the past five years," Fr Flannery said.

"And I find it ironic that the two Bishops Martin, who are now so enthusiastic about the process they have been through in Rome, showed no interest whatever in our proposal, and wouldn't even meet and talk to us about it."

Fr Flannery was referring to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, who both went to the synod in Rome.

Fr Flannery said he was pleased at the synod's final document, even though it didn't contain everything he had hoped for.

"It left issues sufficiently alive for Francis to say further on them when he produces a document.

"And judging by his final statement to the synod on Saturday evening, which I loved, his document could be really interesting, maybe even on the same scale as Evangelii Gaudium."

In 2012, Fr Flannery was suspended from public ministry by the Congregation of the Faith (CDF) for his views on women priests, homosexuality and contraception.

Fr Flannery said the big problem with the synod on the family was the absence of women as voters.

He said voting was clearly not restricted to the ordained as one religious brother who isn't a priest was a voting member at the synod.

This was another example of the Church keeping "women in their place", "subservient with no input into decision-making", he said.

"Unfortunately, this is the one area in which Francis is particularly weak, and I have no doubt that the unequal position of women in the Church is going to be the big stumbling block for the foreseeable future."

Sources

• Fr Tony Flannery blog
• Irish Times
• Image: Catholic Ireland

Archbishop Martin said he was "quite surprised at the remarks of some commentators within church circles about the recent synod of bishops, often making accusations of confusion where such confusion did not exist and so actually fomenting confusion".

He did not identify specific comments along these lines.

But Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, who did not attend the gathering, did broach the topic just after the synod.

"I was very disturbed by what happened" at the synod, Archbishop Chaput said.

"I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was one of confusion."

A mid-point report from the synod pressed for a more welcoming approach by the Church to divorced people and homosexual persons.

The final report toned down the language used.

Archbishop Martin said he believed that "a longing for certainties may spring from personal uncertainty rather than strong faith".

"A strong - and indeed orthodox faith - is never afraid of discussion," he said.

"They [critics] fail to see how Pope Francis shows that his concern for people who suffer is far from being a sign of dogmatic relativism, but rather is a sign of pastoral patience," Archbishop Martin said.

The archbishop also said that "a church which becomes a comfort zone for the like-minded ceases to be truly the Church of Jesus Christ".

Archbishop Martin said this while preaching at a Mass marking the refurbishment of a church at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

The archbishop attended the synod and spoke of the need for new language with which to communicate with married couples, according to excerpts of his remarks published by the Irish bishops' conference.

Many people "would hardly recognise their own experience in the way we present the ideals of married life", he told the synod.

"Indeed many in genuine humility would probably feel that they are living a life which is distant from the ideal of marriage as presented by Church teaching," he said.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Religion News Service
• Image: Irish Independent

This is so it can truly address contemporary concerns, said Archbishop Paul-André Durocher.

In the past, theologians have usually deduced from general, sometimes idealised notions of God or humanity, following the methods of St Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle.

But the prelates at the synod on the family are using inductive reasoning to examine theology from the reality of families today, Archbishop Durocher said.

This starts from the real, lived experience of people, he explained.

Modern examples using inductive methods include pastoral and liberation theologies.

The prelates, the archbishop said, are "finding that the lived experience of people is also a theological source - what we call a theological source, a place of theological reflection".

Church leaders are only beginning to learn how to do this, he noted.

But ongoing reflection will show where God is taking this, he said.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said the Church can't simply repeat what was said 20 years ago.

"[The synod] has to find new language to show that there can be development of doctrine, that there has been a willingness to listen to what emerged in the questionnaire that went out, and what was said in the synod itself," he said.

The archbishop also said the synod fathers are struggling to tie together the notions of truth and mercy in their discussions.

"In the long term, I think, there's fundamental agreement that they go together," he said.

"It isn't that truth is a dogma and mercy is something on the sidelines of Christian teaching. We have to find real ways of bringing these together and it's not easy to."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic England and Wales

Speaking at a Mass in Dublin on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said many in his generation grew up in a religion where this punitive image prevailed.

"Mercy was reduced to a sort of lucky escape from the consequences of hard judgement, hardly the essence of the Christian life," he said.

"The concept of biblical mercy can only be understood if we turn our image of a punitive God head-over-heels," he added.

Archbishop Martin noted how a recent book by Cardinal Walter Kasper on mercy greatly impressed Pope Francis.

The problem was, the archbishop continued, "that if we are trapped into an image of God whose justice is primarily punitive, we will never see mercy as essential to the Christian concept".

"Mercy will, to use the words of Cardinal Kasper, become ‘a concept often to be downgraded, degenerating in to soft spirituality or vague pastoral concern, lacking clear definition and shaped somehow to suit each individual'."

He noted the challenge posed by Pope Francis for the synod next month "is to be open to ways of applying the primacy of mercy to particular situations, while remaining faithful to fundamental truth".

Meanwhile, a Spanish bishop has said Pope Francis told him that the Church's teaching that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics not receive Communion won't change.

Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba said that during an ad limina visit to the Vatican earlier this year, Francis told him that "the Pope cannot change" what Jesus Christ has instituted.

In an interview with Diario Cordoba newspaper, Bishop Fernandez said, "We asked the Pope himself, and he responded that a person married in the Church who has divorced and entered into a new civil marriage cannot approach the sacraments".

"The Pope said that ‘this was established by Jesus Christ and the Pope cannot change it'," he added, according to a Catholic News Agency report.

"I say this because sometimes people say that ‘everything is going to change', and there are some things that cannot be changed. The Church answers to her Lord and her Lord remains alive," Bishop Fernandez continued.

However, he explained, "The Church is continuously telling us to be welcoming, that people not feel excluded, and we can always find ways to be more welcoming".

Source

• Irish Times
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Irish Times

At a Catholic leadership conference in Melbourne last month, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin spoke of a young curate who recently told his parish priest he was not happy with some things the Pope had said.

The young priest felt they "were not in line with what he had learned in the seminary".

And the young priest suggested some of Francis's comments were "making the faithful insecure and even encouraging those who do not hold the orthodox Catholic beliefs to challenge traditional teaching".

Dr Martin said his immediate response was that it was the curate whose security was being upset.

The young priest was not the only one "upset by the way Pope Francis speaks about some things", the archbishop continued.

"There are those who say that he is a communist because of his concern for the poor and his trenchant criticism of some aspects of today's market economy".

However, the archbishop concluded that the problem was "with us, with all of us".

"We all fall into the temptation of reading Pope Francis superficially and selectively.

"All of us are pleased with what Pope Francis says when he says things we like."

But Pope Francis's thought is subtle and full of nuances, as seen in The Joy of the Gospel, and very often people don't pick up on these and miss what the Pope is trying to say, Dr Martin cautioned.

Fr Seamus Ahearne of the Association of Catholic Priests said the Church in Ireland needs to hear more comments like Archbishop Martin's.

He said the archbishop's concern about the "young curate" was a familiar one as many were concerned that the few young priests there are in the Irish Church appear to embrace a very traditionalist view of Church.

They are "so locked into a past model of priesthood" he commented and said this manifested itself in "the way that they dress up, the way they celebrate Mass, and in their views".

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Irish Times
• Image: The Journal

A special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates, burial practices and secret and illegal adoption and vaccine trials on children at these homes.

Irish minister for children Charles Flanagan said it is essential all the facts are established.

The Irish government's move came one day after Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin called for a full- bodied investigation into mother-and-baby homes.

There had been an outcry after publicity about the deaths of nearly 800 children at one home in Tuam from 1925 to 1961.

Some of their remains are believed to be in a disused septic tank.

Continue reading

His call follows controversy over a mass grave containing the remains of nearly 800 children from a convent-run home in Tuam in County Galway.

The children, aged one to nine, died between 1925 and 1961.

The remains, in a disused septic tank, were discovered 40 years ago.

It was initially thought the children's deaths were in the 1850s.

Archbishop Martin said the truth must come out about the homes.

If something happened in Tuam, it probably happened in other such homes around Ireland, Archbishop Martin told RTÉ radio.

"That's why I believe we need a full-bodied investigation," he said.

"There's no point investigating just what happened in Tuam and then next year finding out more.

"We have to look at the whole culture of mother and baby homes; they're talking about medical experiments there."

There have been reports that vaccinations were trialled on children in some of these homes.

Archbishop Martin also said that he wasn't sure if the full blame for the issues at these homes could be placed on the Church.

"There was collusion between church and state institutions," he said.

The Irish government has set up an inter-departmental group to look at the case.

"They're very complicated and very sensitive issues, but the only way we will come out of this particular period of our history is when the truth comes out," Archbishop Martin said.

The Tuam home was run by the Bon Secours sisters for 36 years.

In a statement, the order said it handed its records to the state after the home closed.

The Tuam home was one of 10 institutions in which about 35,000 unmarried pregnant women are thought to have been sent.

The children of these women were denied Baptism and segregated from others at school.

If they died at such facilities, they were also denied a Christian burial.

County Galway death records showed that most of the children buried in the unmarked grave had died of sickness or malnutrition.

Sources

• BBC
• The Journal
• Image: Irish Independent

The cartoon by Martyn Turner showed three priests, with one holding a paper stating "Children First Bill" and "Mandatory Reporting".

The three priests were singing "I'd do anything for children (but I won't do that)".

To the side of the cartoon was the statement: "But there is little else you can do for them [children] except stay away from them, of course."

The context was Ireland's Children First Bill, which authorities say will make it mandatory for some professions to report incidents of harm and risk of harm to children.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said many priests felt hurt about the Turner cartoon.

Speaking on Holy Thursday, Archbishop Martin said he is a strong believer in freedom of speech and of the vital role of satire in social criticism.

But he objected to "anything that would unjustly tarnish all good priests with the unpardonable actions of some".

The Irish Times took the cartoon down from its website and apologised for the offence and hurt caused.

Several days later, Dr Martin said that he is open to the idea of married priests.

But he said ordaining women to make up for the shortage of priests was "not on the table at the moment".

There are now only 250 active diocesan priests in Dublin archdiocese to cover 199 parishes.

Dr Martin said he would "wait and see" what Pope Francis decides about married men as priests.

"I'll wait and see, certainly in missionary countries it must be very important," he said.

Bishop Erwin Krautler from Brazil has said that Pope Francis is open to suggestions from bishops' conferences across the world on ordaining viri probati (married men of proven character).

Dr Martin said more focus must also be put on the deacons and discovering where "priests and lay people can take part in a more collaborative way in our parishes".

Sources

• Yahoo News UK
• Irish Times
• Politics ie
• Irish Independent
• The Tablet
• Image: RTE

He also criticised elements of the Catholic media who he said were damaging the credibility of the church.

In an address yesterday to the 'Faith of Our Fathers' conference in Kilkenny, organised by the 'Catholic Voice' newspaper, the archbishop criticised the "growing tendency" towards 'tabloidism' in sectors of the Catholic media in Ireland.

"Accuracy is more important than the exclusive 'scoop', which may often be unfounded," he said.

He hit out at the "worrying phenomenon of blogs, which are not just partial but at times very far away from the charity with which the truth should be expressed".

Catholic journalism, he warned, must not amount to "conformism".

The archbishop said the church needs a media "that is not afraid to expose mistakes and failures, but whose motive is to challenge the community of believers to continue on the path of conversion".

"The Catholic media will not be credible if it does not confront sins, abuse, weaknesses and failings within our community," he said.

However, he suggested that it would be less than objective if it did not also point to more positive events and happenings. Continue reading

The report also found there was "shocking" police connivance with Church authorities in failing to investigate complaints.

"The priest was looked after, people were kept quiet, and many of those children weren't even spoken to," said Archbishop Martin. "There is no way in which the Church of Jesus Christ should have treated children in that way."

Continue reading

For decades Ireland was looked on as one of the world's most deeply and stably Catholic countries. Today Ireland finds itself, along with other parts of Europe, being classified as "post-Catholic." Everyone has his or her own definition of the term. You can fully define post-Catholic only in terms of the Catholicism that has been displaced. Irish Catholicism has its own unique history and culture. Renewal in the Irish church will not come from imported plans and programs; it must be home-grown.

Ireland does, of course, share the same currents of secularization with other countries of the Western world and thus shares many of the same challenges. There are specific challenges within Europe; there are specific challenges common to the English-speaking world. Yet the fact that Ireland is an English-speaking country does not mean it can be put into the same category as the United States and Great Britain. Continue reading

Sources

• America
• Image: Orbis Catholicus Secundus

"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.

Source:

Irish Times

Image: RTE News

In a homily in his pro-cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the Church "should be active and present in society, drawing attention to suffering and repression of any kind and being alongside those who suffer".

He suggested that the Catholic Church in Ireland today has "again become too timid in bringing its liberating voice to the ‘demons' of Irish society.

"Scandals within the Church and perhaps a lack of real faith have made us all too timid in bringing the voice of Jesus and his Church to the basic issues of Irish society.

"We are tempted to succumb to the widespread opinion that Christianity is really something private and personal for our own devotion and inspiration and not something that has its relevance in the public square."

Archbishop Martin, who held several Vatican posts before becoming Archbishop of Dublin in 2004, said: "It is not that Christians want to impose their views on others. It is more a challenging question for believers to find ways of presenting and witnessing to the Christian vision in terms which can win over and be respected by those alongside whom we work.

"Each of us is called to ensure that our being a Christian somehow brings an added quality to the way we live and to the contribution we bring to society, through how we live our Christian lives in family, in community and in society and indeed into the complex world of science and economics, of politics and communication."

Referring to the instructions Jesus gave his apostles for their missionary journey, he commented: "The vision they present is the very opposite to a consumerist-driven rushing for the non-essential and the almost divinisation of the superfluous and the transient in life, which in the long term leads to emptiness."

Source:

Iona Institute

Image: Alpha