The University of Notre Dame from the US will oversee the initiative at University Church, Dublin.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin announced the establishment of the "Notre-Dame Newman Centre for Faith and Reason".

Earlier this month, Archbishop Martin lamented the dearth of Catholic intellectuals able to engage with public issues in Ireland.

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Fr Brendan Hoban also criticised a "religious media more anxious to protect its pockets than engage with the realities of faith in the world".

Fr Hoban is the co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland.

He made these criticisms in a local newspaper column.

He noted that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin recently lamented the dearth of Catholic intellectuals in Ireland.

Fr Hoban warned of the consequences "if bishops or priests or intelligent ‘lay' Catholics are not prepared to reflectively engage in the public market-place".

In that case, "that space is left open to obsessive Catholic extremists who seek to psychologically bludgeon anyone who doesn't agree with them".

"[They] do untold damage to the Catholic faith in Ireland," he said.

The priest added that there is little institutional support for intellectual debate in the Catholic Church.

This is "as distinct from cheerleading".

He cited the Church's lack of support for several prominent theologians.

These include Enda McDonagh, Gabriel Daly and Sean Fagan.

On the other hand, the Church backs "others of whom great things were expected, but who now seem often to use every opportunity to ingratiate themselves with Church authorities, with an eye to promotion".

Fr Hoban also slated the Vatican silencing of five Irish priests.

The silenced five were "sacrificial lambs hunted down by the Catholic ‘stasi', the equivalent of the East German secret police, who wouldn't know their theological arm from their elbow".

The priests were condemned for effectively helping explain in ordinary words the insights of theologians and biblical scholars, he added.

Fr Hoban queried the lack of Catholic intellectuals in Ireland, given the huge investment in Catholic education.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Image: Irish Central

The Church needs "competent lay men and women educated in their faith", Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said, according to a report in the Irish Times.

The archbishop referred to a statement by Pope Benedict XVI at the beatification of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman in 2010.

"He said: ‘The service to which Blessed John Henry was called involved applying his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the most pressing ‘subjects of the day'," the archbishop recalled.

A lack of people capable of doing such tasks today contributes to the Irish church becoming increasingly marginalised in terms of contributing to social and political discussion, Archbishop Martin said.

Such marginalisation is not simply due to "some sort of external exclusion".

"[I]t is also because the Church in Ireland is very lacking in ‘keen intellects and prolific pens addressing the pressing subjects of the day'," Archbishop Martin said.

This is "a role especially for competent lay men and women well educated in their faith".

"The contribution of the Church to the improvement of society will not be attained simply by negative political commentary.

"It will not be attained by morbid and depressive analysis of the woes of the Church.

"It will never be attained by religious media which allow themselves to be reduced to mere blogs of clerical gossip.

"It cannot be attained by creating a neo-clerical Church, focussed just on priests."

What is needed, Archbishop Martin said, is "a vibrant affirmation of the ‘Joy of the Gospel'".

Without such an affirmation by lay people, the Church will not produce priestly vocations, he added.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Image: Catholic Ireland

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin invited the Pope to preside at the World Meeting of Families scheduled for Dublin in 2018.

The archbishop said in an interview with the Irish Independent last week that Francis had told him "I will come".

The Pope added, "if I don't come, my successor will come".

Popes have presided at all but two of the eight World Meetings of Families, which started in 1994.

But a spokesperson for Archbishop Martin's office later played down reports of a papal visit.

The spokesperson said speculation in the Irish Catholic newspaper about the visit was "completely without foundation".

Archbishop Martin had been speaking casually of the Pope's desire to visit Ireland, not officially confirming a visit, the spokesperson said.

The earliest any official announcement would be made would be in 2017, the spokesperson added.

If he visits Ireland in 2018, the Pope will also reportedly make the first ever visit by a Pontiff to Northern Ireland.

This would complete the pilgrimage of St John Paul II, who wanted to go to Northern Ireland during his 1979 visit.

But rising tensions at the time made this impossible.

A Vatican source told the Irish Catholic that it is quite possible that Pope Francis will visit other parts of Ireland in 2018.

This is because "many Irish Catholics will want to have an opportunity to attend Mass with Pope Francis".

Among other likely stops during a 2018 papal visit would be historic monasteries and Knock Shrine.

St John Paul II visited the shrine and celebrated Mass there during his 1979 visit.

Sources

• Irish Catholic
• Irish Independent
• Irish Times
• Image: RTE

Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh told a conference at Maynooth that it is particularly reprehensible when those responsible purport to be Catholic or Christian.

"Sadly more and more journalists, members of the Church and other people with a public profile, have had to stop using social media as they have become victims of vitriol and abuse," said Archbishop Martin

"Regardless of the age of the victim, it is a shame that aggressive behaviour and offensive language have contributed towards social media becoming a harsh and dehumanising environment for some."

He added that the sins of bearing false witness, defamation, detraction and calumny are no less grave just because they are committed behind the anonymity of a computer screen.

"They still destroy the dignity of another human person.

"When such negative communications emanate from sources purporting to be Catholic or Christian they are particularly reprehensible."

Msgr Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Council for Social Communications, described social media as "postmodernism on speed".

It is also a world where "turning the other cheek probably never found another context where it was more relevant".

The Church, said Msgr Tighe, was "trying to find its way in this new digital world", remembering that communication is its core activity.

The Church, he said, "is not Rome".

The central reality for most people was that Church was their local community or "series of communities linked to one another".

"Digital is real," he said, advising people to "avoid the dualism" of "a real world and a digital world".

He recalled how Pope Benedict XVI said people "should ‘try and give the internet a soul', not that we are the soul of the internet".

Sources

• Irish Times
• Image: RTE

Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said it would be a mistake for the synod to overlook the "shattering" effects of clerical sexual abuse on families.

In his synod intervention, Archbishop Martin urged his fellow bishops to "not forget families which have experienced the trauma of abuse and domestic violence".

He admitted that his "very deliberate intervention" had "undoubtedly been influenced" by the experience of the Church in Ireland

"We know only too well the horrific impact of sins and crimes of abuse in the Church family: the betrayal of trust, the violation of dignity, the shame - both public and private, the anger and alienation, the wound that never seems to heal," he told the Irish Catholic.

Noting that he also referenced domestic violence, Archbishop Martin said he felt that the synod's working document "had not sufficiently taken account of the awful impact and horrible reality" of such issues.

"I felt that the synod, being more conscious of these realities, may be more careful in its portrayal of what we like to call the ‘Good News' of the family," he said.

"We are very much aware that an awful lot of families go through immense pain, immense suffering, immense hurt and trauma and if we are able to hold that terrible sense of betrayal, shame, lost childhoods and lost lives that abuse domestic violence represents, then it may make our approach to families more pastoral, more compassionate and more understanding."

The archbishop did not support allowing bishops' conferences to develop their own policies regarding Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

Sources

• Irish Catholic
• Image: Irish Times

Speculation is growing about a papal visit after it was announced that the next World Meeting of Families would be in Dublin in 2018.

Archbishop Martin said Francis is aware of the damage done to the Irish church by the sex abuse scandal.

The Pope is also aware of the changing nature of Irish society, the archbishop said.

"He is determined, I think, to see the next World Meeting of Families through and to be in Ireland, but it's too early to say that yet."

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In a speech, Archbishop Dairmuid Martin said while the Church in Ireland would never be what it was 20 or even 10 years ago, things were improving.

"But the moment I say that the Church has turned the corner the temptation is to think that things can now go back to where they were before."

Indeed there were signs within the Church "that some - even young people - are seeking refuge from the challenges of life by adapting ways of the past and are retreating from dialogue with the present into the false security of imaginary better times", he said.

In a tribute to priests he said "there is very little doubt that among the most respected categories of people in Irish society today ‘our local priest' must be in the top five and for good reason".

"I am afraid that ‘the bishops' as a group may be farther down on the popularity gauge."

While there were many indications that "residual cultural Catholicism" was still strong in Irish culture, he said, it would be foolish "to ignore the fact that that Irish cultural Catholicism has a clear generational sell-by-date printed on it".

What the Church needed was "a strong laity which is not inward looking or caught up simply in Church structures and activities".

Archbishop Martin also said he regrets saying the Irish church needed a reality check in the wake of the same-sex marriage referendum in May.

This is because the phrase as reported has been widely misunderstood.

"The first thing that the Church must do is to carry out continuous - what I have called - ‘reality checks'", he said.

"A reality check is nothing more than discerning the facts in all their complexity and then facing the facts and evaluating how to address the facts in a culture that is ever changing," he said.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Irish Times
• Image: Catholic Ireland

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin also said the Church needs to ask itself if it has drifted away from young people.

In the referendum on May 22, voters were asked if they agreed with the statement: ""Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex".

Of votes cast, the "Yes" vote was 62.1 per cent to 37.9 per cent "No".

The total turnout was 60.5 per cent.

Archbishop Martin acknowledged that there had been a "social revolution" - but it didn't begin with the referendum.

"It's very clear that if this referendum is an affirmation of the views of young people, then the Church has a huge task in front of it to find the language to be able to talk to and to get its message across to young people, not just on this issue, but in general," he said.

When he met Pope Benedict after he became archbishop, the pope asked him about the points of contact between the Catholic Church and the places where the future of Irish culture was being formed, he said.

"And that's a question the Church has to ask itself here in Ireland," Dr Martin said.

"Most of these young people who voted ‘Yes' are products of our Catholic schools for 12 years," he said.

"There's a big challenge there to see how we get across the message of the Church . . .We need to sit down and say ‘are we reaching out at all to young people?' . . . We're becoming a Church of the like-minded, and a sort of a safe space for the like-minded," he said.

The archbishop said this didn't mean the Church renouncing its teaching on marriage and family.

Rather it needed to find a new language, which it owns, but others appreciate.

"The Church's teaching, if it isn't expressed in terms of love - then it's got it wrong," he added.

Sources

• Irish Times
• BBC
• RT
• Image: Independent

Irish-based Coping International was assured by the bishops that this support would be forthcoming.

The bishops made this decision at their autumn meeting in October last year.

The therapy would be provided through the church-sponsored "Towards Healing" service.

The founder of Coping International said the "Irish Catholic bishops have been providing counselling services ‘ad hoc' through Towards Healing since 2011 to children of Irish Catholic priests and to their mothers since 2013".

He told The Tablet that the Irish bishops' decision is believed to be "the first of its kind in the Church".

Coping International maintains contact with more than 30 children of priests and also some priests.

It works "primarily (at this point) with Irish clientele", but includes the Philippines, Africa and South America, where Irish priests work as missionary priests.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin reportedly stated: "I pray that Coping will be able to find ways which will bring the children of priests and their natural parents together for the benefit of both."

Blogging for The Tablet, David Weber, founder of Human Rights for Children of Priests, said thousands of people are affected by this issue worldwide.

Mr Weber wrote that while "a child of a diocesan parish priest might sometimes have secret contact with his or her father . . . in my experience, the payment of child support is attached to a confidentiality agreement that results in immense pressure on the child not to tell anyone who the father is".

He pointed to the 2014 report on the Vatican's compliance with the UN convention of the right of the child on this matter.

Mr Weber said a UN committee's report was "almost revolutionary" in recommending that "the Vatican find out who [the children of priests] are, [and] take all necessary measures to ensure that the rights of those children to know and to be cared for by their fathers is respected".

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Image: Fashions Cloud

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was speaking to a group of diocesan communications officers, ahead of Ireland's referendum on legal same-sex marriage on May 22.

"There can be an ethic of equality which is an ethic of recognising and respecting difference," he said.

"A pluralist society can be creative in finding ways in which people of same-sex orientation have their rights and their loving and caring relationships recognised and cherished in a culture of difference, while respecting the uniqueness of the male-female relationship."

The archbishop acknowledged the Church had, at times, used "harsh", "insensitive and overly judgmental" language to present a message of love.

He said that the Church had given "harsh" treatment to gays and lesbians in the past - "and in some cases still today".

It had also presented rational argument as a dogma everyone must accept.

But this was no justification for people today to replace dogmatism with "sound-bite-ism" as a way of avoiding rational debate, he said.

He was critical of politicians on this score.

Nonetheless, the Church still needed to learn to voice its criticism "clearly and without fear", but in language that "which respects her Master".

He chided people who say the debate is not a religious one, yet selectively quote the Pope.

"I find it interesting that many of those supporting the yes campaign object to the use of religious language, but they are not shy in quoting Pope Francis in support of their arguments, although I feel that their knowledge of Pope Francis' repertoire is somewhat restricted," he said.

The "complementarity of men and women, of male and female, in the nature of humanity" is a fundamental philosophical concept, Archbishop Martin said.

"That we exist as male and female is not a marginal dimension of being human," the archbishop added.

The Church's teaching on marriage and the family and its relevance to social ethics will remain the same, whatever the referendum result might be, he said.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Irish Times
• Dublin Archdiocese
• Image: Irish Catholic

Speaking at a meeting of the Iona Institute, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said much of the discussion on marriage and family in Ireland today is polemical.

The archbishop referred to some correspondence he has received in the build up to Ireland's referendum on same-sex marriage in May.

He said the language was "not just intemperate, but obnoxious, insulting and unchristian in regard to gay and lesbian people".

He warning the correspondents about using such language to support a position they felt was Christian.

"Then all I can say is that they have forgotten something essential about the Christian message."

The archbishop said that discussion on the definitions of marriage required time and frank and balanced discussion.

But he noted that an ethics of equality did not require uniformity.

"There can be an ethic of equality, which is an ethic of recognising and respecting difference," he said.

Dr Martin suggested that a pluralist society could be creative in finding ways in which people of same-sex orientation had their rights and their loving and caring relationships recognised and cherished in a culture of difference.

"I'm not saying that gay and lesbian people are unloving or that their love is somehow deficient compared to others," he said.

"I am talking about a uniqueness in the male-female relationship."

Archbishop Martin said there is something "irreplaceable in that relationship between a man and a woman who commit to one another in love and who remain open to the transmission and the nurturing of human life".

"We are all the children of a male and a female and this must have relevance to our understanding of the way children should be nurtured and educated," he added.

Sources

• Irish Independent
• Iona Institute
• Image: Sunday Times

Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin said in a media interview that a redefinition of marriage was also a redefinition of parenthood.

When asked about gay people who are already parents, the bishop replied: "They're not parents."

"You see the point about it is . . . they may have children, but that's the difference."

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin subsequently said this was "an unfortunate phrase".

Bishop Doran later said he realised some people were hurt "by either what I said or what they thought I had said and I very much regret that".

He said in pressure situations like the interview his words might not have been chosen as carefully as they would have been in a statement.

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The figure was mentioned by priest psychologist Msgr Stephen Rossetti at a conference on safeguarding children in Ireland last month.

Msgr Rossetti is a professor at The Catholic University of America and a visiting professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

He told the Catholic News Service that secular organisations and other churches in the United States are coming to the Catholic Church to learn from its policies.

Over time, more than 5.2 million adults and children have gone through the safe environment training in the United States, and more than 3 million priests, lay employees and volunteers have gone through background checks, he said.

Msgr Rossetti told participants at the conference: "Good response policies are important. But the heart of the matter is education — stopping abuse before it occurs."

He noted that victims standing up and telling their stories has been the decisive factor in turning the tide.

He highlighted that in the United States, child abuse rates are dropping throughout society and the Church.

"At the recorded height, the John Jay Study said 4 percent of clergy were involved as perpetrators," the Monsignor said.

"That number has fallen to less than 1 percent. We have turned the corner, but we shall not rest until the number of abused children is zero," he added.

Last year, Pope Francis was quoted by an Italian newspaper as saying that about 2 per cent of Catholic clergy are paedophiles.

The Pope has set up a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Dublin Archbishop Eamon Martin, president of the Irish bishops' conference, warned the conference against becoming "safeguarding-weary" or complacent.

He said the legacy of betrayal, trauma and shame that clerical abuse has left in its wake must never been forgotten.

Four Irish bishops have resigned following severe criticism of their failures in relation to handling allegations of abuse.

Sources

• CatholicPhilly
• Reuters
• Image: Columbus Dispatch

Speaking in a Lenten talk in Country Kerry, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's warning also extended to those he called the Church's "self-appointed spokespeople".

"Where the Church argues from general principles, there is inevitably the feeling on the part of others that it is somehow against the concrete individual men and women who have a different viewpoint," the archbishop said.

"This is made more complex if Church leaders, or self-appointed Church spokespersons, use language which is insensitive and over judgmental," he added.

The Church must voice its criticism "in language which respects her Master, Jesus Christ", he explained.

Jesus "never criticised those with whom he may have disagreed about their morals, except with those who were hypocritical . . .".

Archbishop Martin observed that "all too often the hypocrites in Jesus' judgement, it is clear in the Gospels, were the religious leaders".

Archbishop Martin said he is struck by the way Pope Francis operates, in contrast to the model he had just outlined.

"Pope Francis seems to be able to speak clearly about doctrine, and yet respect and embrace those who cannot find their way to follow that doctrine," the archbishop said.

"His starting point is usually not that of being head of the Catholic Church, but that of being a sinner."

Pope Francis, he said, "has the ability to see that truth and mercy are not mutually exclusive in absolutist terms".

"Pope Francis does not think in the black and white categories that we tend to.

"He sees that most of us live in the grey areas of life where compromise may often be almost inevitable."

Archbishop Martin cited the way Francis sees Christians who may live together before marriage, or who live in civil marriages.

The Pope sees that such persons "may indeed share more of the vision of Christian marriage than we often think", the archbishop said.

"We will attain more by reaching out to them rather than by simply condemning."

In May, Ireland is to have a referendum on legal same-sex marriage.

Sources

• Irish Times
• The Guardian
• Image: Irish Central

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland published reviews on the implementation of policies in 16 religious congregations.

Only two orders - the Congregation of the Sacred Heart and the Dominican Sisters - were found to have had good compliance.

Teresa Devlin, the board's chief executive, said she was "disappointed that for the majority of orders, the whole area of safeguarding is only being embraced in the last couple of years".

There is considerable work still to be done in seven male congregations, she said.

These are the Franciscan Friars, Franciscan Brothers, the Servites, Passionists, Augustinians, Discalced Carmelites and the Marist Fathers.

During the audits carried out last year, inspectors found poor record management in many cases, making an assessment of child protection practice difficult.

The Irish Independent reported that the audits showed opportunities to safeguard children were missed.

Known abusers were allowed to remain in ministry in the 1990s, the board reported.

Management of accused priests and nuns has improved significantly, it noted.

But it warned there is still room for improvement including in the sharing of information.

It also stated that support for survivors is good in many cases.

But the reports warned of delays in reporting allegations to the authorities up until 2009, and that some practices did not improve until 2013.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin called the slow speed of implementation of guidelines "appalling".

While he acknowledged recent improvements, especially by current leadership of religious orders, he believed the audits point to the need for greater systems of accountability.

The archbishop said the findings cast doubt on the credibility of the Church's entire safeguarding efforts.

He said he intends to "meet with the superiors of all the religious congregations working in parishes" in Dublin archdiocese.

"Failure of any church organisation to implement fully and robustly the agreed clear norms is a direct affront to the desire of Pope Francis," he said.

Archbishop Martin said he was particularly concerned that rules on child protection may be interpreted differently by some orders.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Irish Independent
• Image: BBC

The Irish Times reported an invitation by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to priests and parishioners to hold meetings on the subject.

In a letter to priests and parishes, Archbishop Martin stated that Pope Francis wants Catholics around the world to have an opportunity to make their contribution to the process.

He said: "Worldwide, there is a great appreciation of the fact that Pope Francis wanted to hear the sentiments of [Catholics] on the theme of the synod.

"I believe we owe it to Pope Francis to use this opportunity for reflection - and indeed a new model of church practice - which he offers."

Each parish is to determine itself how that discussion should take place in February and March.

Responses from the discussions are expected to be presented at the Dublin archdiocese's office of evangelisation and ecumenism before the end of March.

This will allow for a consolidated report from the Irish church to be ready in time for the preparation of the formal working document at the synod.

Archbishop Martin said there was an important distinction between the purposes of the synods which took place last October and that planned for next October.

This should be reflected in the discussion process, he said.

He explained that the aim of the extraordinary synod last year was to gather factual information about the situation of marriage and the family in our time.

The aim of the ordinary synod in October is to take up the conclusions of last years' synod and begin the reflection on how church pastoral services for marriage and family life should be strengthened and renewed.

Discussion and reflection involving priests and lay people have also been initiated in Australia and England and Wales, ahead of the synod.

The theme for October's synod is "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World".

Sources

• Irish Times
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic Weekly
• Image: Irish Times