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by Niall O'Dowd

Could the next pope be Irish? Archbishop Martin of Dublin seen as contender

Posted on Monday, May 03, 2010 at 10:17 PM
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Could the next pope be Irish? The National Catholic Reporter in the U.S. seems to think so.

Don't laugh. Picture the scene, an ailing Pope Benedict, his papacy destroyed by the pedophilia crisis, is on his deathbed.

The cry goes out for a successor untainted by the scandals that have rocked the church. The present 'papabille', or likely popes are all hopelessly compromised.

Far and wide the search goes until it lands in Ireland home of the worst scandals of all perhaps, but also of the only senior churchman who has faced down the entrenched elements that have perpetuated this awful crisis and has won the total trust of the laity

Step forward Archbishop --no doubt soon to be Cardinal Diarmuid Martin, who has fearlessly tackled the pedophile crisis to the point where he is now a revered figure in many circles-- and hated by many of those he exposed.

Don't take my word for it. Just read what the the very influential National Catholic Reporter is saying this week here in the U.S. in their latest editorial --and tell me they don't want this man in the seat of Peter.

Archbishop Martin they say “arrives as a fresh voice, unencumbered by any involvement in the scandal. So far he has rendered a sober and honest assessment of the crisis and its causes.”

“after reading the documentation assembled as part of an Irish Government investigation of sexual abuse by priests in his archdiocese, [he] predicted that we would become ‘a humbler church’.”

“perhaps Ireland, so thoroughly Catholic and so deeply shaken by the scandals there, could be the place where a new ecclesiology [new understanding of what it means to be a church] surfaces, one that is more inclusive and transparent than the royal model that is in decline.

“Perhaps [Ireland] could be the birthplace of an ecclesiology that is humbler, not in a humiliated way, but in a way that takes stock of what a Christian community should be and how it should be present to the world.

“Perhaps it could provide an example of the kind of serious and deep introspection that will be required of the clergy, especially the hierarchy, to get to the root causes of the scandalous behaviour of the clergy culture and to discern what reforms are necessary to make it a culture of service and compassion.”

“from parish priest to pope, those charged with protecting the community, on hearing that children were being sexually abused, acted first to protect the institutional church . . . When the community most needed its leaders to act as pastors, they chose instead to act as princes, ignoring the problem all around them while employing every means available to spare the realm.”

It said “the bishops used the secrecy of their privileged culture, the trust that those within the church and even the wider society conferred on them, as well as the labyrinthine and hidden protocols of their culture to shuffle offending priests and to avoid scrutiny by civil authorities”.

This “strategy grew out of a model of governance owing more to the concept of royalty and to court behaviour than to the demands of the gospel.

“The royal model admits no wrong, requires absolute loyalty and is accountable to no one. Compassion has little place in the prince’s world.”

The editorial concluded: “Catholics want to walk with their leaders, not beneath them . . . We want to be the people of God, not cowed serfs. We want our pastors back. We’ve had quite enough of princes.”

Archbishop Martin of Dublin is quoted as the one example of how the issue had to be tackled. He will soon be a Cardinal.

Cardinal Daly died in Ireland recently, the other prelate, Cardinal Sean Brady was taken ill recently and was also implicated in a pedophile priest cover up. Martin would be a hugely popular choice to replace either.

This could get very interesting.


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15 Comments

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glorybe1929 | May 26, 2010, 02:49 PM EDT
It could get very interesting if you would post my blogs. I was an Irish Catholic since the age of 12 when my mother and i went to instructions for a year to bring back my Father to the Faith. He came back and we were a nice happy Catholic Family. Iam now going on 81. We were sick and tired ofof being had and explaining the evil church.

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CER1940 | May 26, 2010, 01:59 PM EDT
If the RCC is to recover they need to look OUTSIDE the existing heirarchy. Everyone and everything inside the heirarchy is toxic.

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Intercessor | May 26, 2010, 12:19 PM EDT
Archbishop Martin is definitely one of the very few members of the Hierarchy that I respect. For the simple reason that he would make a good pope and be fearless about rooting out 90% of the Hierarchy is probably one of the best reasons why he'll never be elected Pope. After-all, why elect someone who will end up embarrassing you, taking away your country-club membership and the perks of being in the hierarchy, or firing you?

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Monsoonman | May 07, 2010, 10:04 AM EDT
I second Ian Paisley and also place into contention Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County. Further I nominate Sarah Palin, she would clean out the vatican in short order.

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Bushothehill | May 07, 2010, 09:22 AM EDT
Its about time we had some fresh air in the Vatican. With that in mind, I nominate Ian Paisley.

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Monsoonman | May 07, 2010, 12:19 AM EDT
Enough of this talk of which country the pope is from, it is just switching deck chairs on the titanic at this point. If the church surely wants to evolve and become a real inspiration to the world...The next leader should be a woman.

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McNamara31 | May 06, 2010, 10:20 AM EDT
I think we have had enough of the "canon lawyers" and church politicians who rationalized how to handle the past decades of abuse...I would love to see a Pope who takes us back to the original catholicism as taught by Christ, including a married clergy that had been our chuch policy for the first 12 centuries.

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Monsoonman | May 05, 2010, 06:25 PM EDT
I think any potential pope should be well vetted before he gets in a position to cause smoke to rise over the vatican. At the very least they should disclose his school records to see what kind of student he was, make public his long form birth certificate & show the public his health records to mae sure he is not suffering from some sort of terminal std...Isn't that the least that should be done when considering a person to such a powerful position?

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aoifekane28 | May 05, 2010, 04:39 PM EDT
"I'm of Irish ancestry and I wouldn't trust an Irishman to be Pope" houston123 would you care to elaborate as to why you wouldn't trust an Irishman to be Pope? I'm interested to know why you would right off all Irishmen?

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houston123 | May 05, 2010, 03:09 PM EDT
I'm of Irish ancestry and I wouldn't trust an Irishman to be Pope

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houston123 | May 05, 2010, 03:08 PM EDT
Sean Omalley practically ignores his flock! Poor choice!!!

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patrickesq | May 05, 2010, 11:14 AM EDT
We certainly need some new untainted leadership of our papist Church and Archbishop Martin may be a very good choice for the next Vicar of Christ. But what will reform the college of Cardinal to select such a leader?

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cjsjhsbb | May 05, 2010, 11:13 AM EDT
I'm in total agreement with the article. I've studied Celtic culture and the "Celtic Church" that was absored into the Roman Rite and have hoped for sometime now a more "Celtic" way of thinking would take the Church. The first Celtic Christians I believe had a much greater sense of who and what our Lord was about. I recommend everyone interested in history read "How the Irish Saved Civilization" by Thomas Cahill.

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bcoc1124 | May 04, 2010, 11:48 AM EDT
Sean O'Malley is a yes man -

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DennisQ | May 04, 2010, 12:54 AM EDT
I like Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Boston's 65-year old archbishop. A Capuchin Franciscan, he wears his brown habit except when he HAS to dress up as a cardinal. He's no pushover. They tried to keep him away from Edward Kennedy's funeral because of the senator's position on abortion, and O'Malley refused. He also blogs! http://www.cardinalseansblog.org/

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