Diarmuid Martin may not last as Irish church savior says top reporter
Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 10:01 AM
Larger Text
Print
E-mail
54 Comments
RSS 
Recent Posts
- Senator Schumer says Irish deserve a separate deal for visas because of 1965 shutout - Says “Schumer visas” set to give Ireland 10,500 visas a year for the future
- Prospects for immigration reform bill are 50-50 say the pols privately - House seen as major obstacle as Senate gets closer to a vote
- Chilling testimony before congressional hearing on Pat Finucane death - New hearings told how informer was murdered before he could give evidence
- U.S. Tourism Ireland chief Joe Byrne says goodbye and hello again to massive acclaim - Popular Carlow native led tourist figures to Ireland to historic heights
- Cardinal Sean O’Malley reneged on Boston College commencement deal say Irish sources - Irish government said to be furious over statement condemning Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny
Archives
John Allen is perhaps the most influential reporter on Catholic issues in AmericaAs the senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) in Rome he had a key assignment and broke many exclusive stories such as Rome's response to the American sexual abuse crisis, the Vatican's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI.
Now based in New York, Allen is still a major figure in church coverage.
So his decision to visit Ireland and comment on the state of the church there, which he did in NCR this week, is an interesting one.
What did he find?
In one word anger.
In a few more words, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the reforming Archbishop of Dublin is seen as the only hope for many Catholics there but he may not be around long enough.
He writes: "Anger bred by the crisis is never very far from the surface in Ireland, among survivors themselves, inside the Catholic fold, and among a broad cross-section of the general public."
He also talks about the extraordinary stature of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin,considered to be the last remaining decent church leader in Ireland because of his determined work to ensure that responsibility is taken for the pedophile crisis.
Allen says: "Although it takes time to catch on, there’s a striking bit of Catholic locution in Ireland. When someone refers to “the bishops” or “the hierarchy,” they generally mean everyone but Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. In the abstract, one might expect the leader of the country’s largest and most influential diocese to set the tone for perceptions of the bishops. Instead, he’s seen as an outlier for his strong approach on the crisis, including his commitment to holding church leadership accountable."
He says Martin, who is now 66 has ten years left in Dublin but may be moved sooner
As a result he writes it could be race against time for Martin to impose his will on the church in Ireland
"At 66, Martin could be in charge in Dublin for ten more years, though there’s the possibility he could be moved in the meantime. (A veteran of the Vatican diplomatic corps, he’s occasionally tipped for openings either in Rome or as a nuncio in another country.)
The question is whether Martin will be able to institutionalize his vision before he eventually moves on, or whether ten years from now Irish Catholics will still be talking about “the bishops” and meaning everyone but Diarmuid Martin."
Allen returns to the anger theme throughout his lengthy article.
He cites a priest who was himself abused speaking out at a conference in Milltown, Dublin.
"At one stage during the Milltown conference, an Irish priest and abuse survivor named Fr. Patrick McCafferty began to shout while invoking the Biblical image of the “abomination of desolation.” An audience member asked him to dial down the anger, to which his heartfelt, and transparently honest, reply was: “I am angry. I am so angry, sorry.”
When he asked members of a protest group what would satisfy then , one replied it would be seeing Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh in handcuffs. (Brady has drawn fire for his role in a church investigation in 1975)
Martin remains the only hope for many Catholics Allen finds. At the end of a TV program he took part in he says: "an articulate and well-known survivor seated next to me, Marie Collins, interjected: “He’s the only bishop who has the support of the people!”
Incredible but true in a country that once deified its clergy.
54 Comments
15 - 54 | See all comments
Tisovertheglen | Apr 20, 2011, 02:24 PM EDT
I highly recommend Karen Armstrong's widely acclaimed 'A History of God'. That gives equal measure, voice, unparralled schollarship and insight into how the Judaic, Christian, and Muslim Faiths came to be. While distilling the essence of their Scriptorums to the single thread found in all three Religions obscured by rhetoric--Compassion. No other woman has been applauded by Muslim Clerics (amazing in itself) The Chief Rabbi (similarly so) and Christian Theologians (ditto) on this documented honesty. An Oxford Graduate. Former Catholic nun. Unembittered I might add. And truly brilliant mind. Her two earlier works 'Through the Narrow Gate' and 'The Spiral Staircase' Memoirs in sequence make for a preamble to this now Classic search for Truth. Published about a year ago. Archbishop Dairmud Martin a man of this ilk in my opinion. Perhaps he too will walk away from the structures that argue the case against humanity. Pen a soul filled Memoir. An Irish Schollar with a huge heart.Where 'Compassion' has long since found a home. As the Article informs "..the only Bishop who has the support of the people" Interesting that the other Mitres have squirreled away to watch what becomes of him. Some no doubt annoyed he's still around.
Report abuse
eiriamach | Apr 19, 2011, 06:04 PM EDT
Jacersagain, it's not my place to reply to your comments about JuneAnnette, who seems perfectly capable of speaking for herself. Wow! Look at the detailed evidence she marshals in support of her statements at 12:14 PM. IC needs more of that, and less lashing out in unsupported sweeping generalizations. You may not wish to reply, as you say, but I predict that she will stand her ground. Her words remind me of another source of my anger: the Vatican's rejection of the Human Rights document drafted by the UN to protect the rights of LGBTs under civil laws: Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, as reported on CNS, said, "Laws must regulate certain sexual behaviors" (Mar 22, 2011). When religions play politics, they're more divisive than any political party could be. BTW: I'd never try to make an ex-Catholic of you, if only because I so much enjoy a good debate. (Heaven help me, and quickly cure me!)
Report abuse
eiriamach | Apr 19, 2011, 05:36 PM EDT
Jacersagain, on Mar 21, 10:24 AM, under "250 Years of Celebration," you wrote, "My sole basis for appropriate deliberate discrimination against the activities of LGBT people [is] the advices given in the Bible. Forgive the sinner, we all say, only God can forgive the sin. Anyone who flaunts . . . the Bible’s words, or anyone who encourages pro-LGBT agenda, does so in assumption of knowing better than God." Just as I was unaware of manifesting anger, perhaps you are unaware of your "deliberate discrimination"? That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but then I've suspected all along that you are not just as "simple" a "Dublin man" as you wish, in humility, to seem. My conclusion: I did not misrepresent your position. I do, however, approve of your allusion to Paul's words in Galatians 2:11: "And when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong." That's the spirit of conscientious debate that Christians truly need right now.
Report abuse
jacersagain | Apr 19, 2011, 04:23 PM EDT
I’m going to step outside the personal addresses of this discussion and humbly draw attention to the Bible, Acts 15: 35-41. It may be slightly ironic for struggling Catholic, barneyjo (who, I’m now convinced is, like eiriamach and JuneAnnette, a woman) but my drawing attention to these verses of the Acts is not intended for barneyjo. It’s just ironic that the central character in the verses is Barnabas. >> In these verses, it clearly shows that St Barnabas and St Paul had one helluva row between themselves and went their separate ways (Paul musta been one helluva bollicks to speak and deal with; he also had a blazing row with St Peter, a row in which Paul emerged the victor and as a result of which row, I, a descendant of gentiles, am a Catholic this day). Yet, both Barnabas and Paul continued to preach Christ’s message. Some years later, it was Barnabas who was proven to be the victor out of his row with Paul, over Mark, and Paul acknowledged that later - in Tim, 4, 11. Likewise, I pray we who differ will continue to hold Christ in our hearts and, like Paul, acknowledge mistakes. I’m off the soapbox now. Like A/bishop Diarmuid Martin, I will not be the last to mount and dismount it.
Report abuse
jacersagain | Apr 19, 2011, 04:10 PM EDT
@ eiriamach I say that if one is a member of a club - say American Football, or soccer, Gaelic games, chess, Australian Rules, basketball, or bridge etc., - and participates in that club’s activities – well, isn’t one obliged to adhere to the rules of that club and its purpose? If one doesn’t, one can be “sin-binned” for reflection and repentance, or, for persistent rejection of the club’s objectives, one can ultimately and utterly be banned from the club and its purpose. So it is with the Catholic Churches... Please do not ever again attack me for trying to stay on the field of play, for trying to remain a Catholic, despite Satan’s attempts to use you and others, including media like Niall O’Dowd’s, to attempt to dissuade me from belief in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. It is not your fault that you were born a woman fighting for equality, any more than it’s the fault of men who have been loving husbands to wives and loving fathers of children to be denied by their wives the right to see their children and be a part of their lives.
Report abuse
jacersagain | Apr 19, 2011, 03:52 PM EDT
D’ya know what? barneyjo and meself must be telepathetic. Years ago, I joined a ‘Christian’ Chat Room on a website, naively thinking I was joining in with a Christian-minded set. It wasn’t long before I realised it was a most un-Christian site, such was the viciousness of the exchanges. One man, a US (non-Irish) Catholic, was constantly harangued but he was up to the task and I, like other Catholics on the site, rarely had to step forward to support him. I now know just how he must have felt being the singular target of attacks by those who, while claiming to be Christians, have rejected the Catholic Church and its teachings. This discussion under Niall's article above is also turning un-Christian in attitude but if I may brazenly say so, it is not on my part. As proof of that, I invite anyone reading these exchanges to re-read all of them and see the context in which I’ve made my posts.
Report abuse
JuneAnnette | Apr 19, 2011, 12:14 PM EDT
jacersagain . . The brazen attitude and complacent demeanor you exhibit in your comments in the face of the continued plague of licentiousness and decadence raging within the ranks of your clergy embroiled in a scandal of such magnitude that it shocks both the religious and irreligious community alike beggars belief. Your persistent Catholic public relations campaign fails to inspire confidence and your fanciful notions regarding your church border on the delusional. Do you honestly believe the morally and spiritually bankrupt R.C.C. has anything to commend itself in the present climate? You seem oblivious to the mass exodus going on in your church of “the formerly faithful”, no longer content to “Pay, Pray & Obey”. Those whose conscience hasn't been seared have seen through the smoke and mirrors and are leaving in PROTEST.***Article: 'German Catholics leave church in droves' / Source: Deutsche Welle / DW-World.DE / 06.04.2011 ***Article: 'The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants' / Source: NCR – National Catholic Reporter / Apr. 18, 2011***Article: 'American pews empty out as sex-abuse scandal escalates' / Source: theseniortimesblogspot.com / April, 2011***I would submit to you that those who remain in the R.C.C., now facing charges of “crimes against humanity” are the ones in need of counseling. ***Article: 'Write Hague Criminal Court Prosecutor by May 11 re Crimes Against Humanity of Pope' / Source: City of Angels Blogspot / Thursday, April 7, 2011***". . . Come out from her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:3)
Report abuse
eiriamach | Apr 19, 2011, 11:42 AM EDT
I repeat what I said below: we are living through a time of eclipse of Roman Catholic forms of worship, ministry, clerical integrity, and moral influence in the world. That's simply an undeniable fact of history. Those who call for reform clash with those intent on defending their "holy remnant." But we can witness these times with some grace and honesty and without shifting into attack mode over each other's choice of words. I am not angry at Jacers-- truly not!-- although I am angry at what Fr. Bourgeois and Sr. Elizabeth A. Johnson and the LGBTs and thousands of young victims of sexual abuse and women who try to follow religious callings, etc., have suffered through the actions of RCC churchmen. I'm sorry that BarneyJ picks up on that anger. Please just try to ignore the tone and focus on the content of my postings. And let other site visitors decide who **if anyone** is right and who is wrong in whatever debate is going on at the moment. It all serves a purpose, more heat than light at first glance, maybe, but the light will make its way through in the end.
Report abuse
eiriamach | Apr 19, 2011, 11:00 AM EDT
Jacers, you say that I've misrepresented your words and even lied; in the past, responding to such accusations, I've simply quoted your own words back to you. See, for example, Under "Irelands Census 2011 and Catholicism. . . " on Apr 02, 6:34 PM: "And yes, you do engage in a strategy of insults and threats to deflect the impact of the truth. You write, 'Catholics who deny the RCC and its mission, risk allowing Satan to perpetuate his evil work within the Church and being part of it,' 'eeejits like Paddy Duffy above who are so swamped by populist fashion that they can’t see the wood for the trees,' and 'unfounded hysteria,'" and I might add your insult ("brainwashed") to JuneAnnette below, Apr 16, 7:42 PM, and more. You are free to do all of that, surely. I would never in any way try to censor you. But I feel myself addressed by such "attack-mode" free speech; I find that I am morally compelled to respond. This is by way of explanation, not apology. If you will point out to me SPECIFICALLY just how I have misrepresented your comments, you'll have my apology. But it will not do to quote words in which you acknowledge moral failures of churchmen when elsewhere you insult those who criticize the moral failures of churchmen! And what harm can it possibly do anyone for me to refer to the "false gods" of ancient Greece and Rome or of the pagan Celts? Have some tolerance at least for the roots of Western civilization in the works of the ancient poets.
Report abuse
barneyjo | Apr 19, 2011, 07:35 AM EDT
@anybody - My oh my, but there seems to be SO MANY angry Christians posting these days!! I cannot detect Christs presence in any of them!!
Report abuse
jacersagain | Apr 19, 2011, 07:01 AM EDT
The post that should have appeared between 6.25 and 8.19pmEDT - (On reflection, it might have been too long for ICentral computers to comprehend and post) - Since eiriamach waits in jovial mood for my thunderous response, I start off in the same jovial mood, without referring to the false Greek and Roman gods - Jove, Jupiter and Zeus - that she calls upon in this simple discussion. Eiriamach had better get herself ready for this... (Jaysus, eiriamach! - just don’t expect me to TELL you how to get ready!) >>> You know that story in the Gospels about the crowd about to stone a woman for being a sinner? Remember when Jesus turned on the crowd and thunderously roared at them “LET ANY OF YOU WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE!!”... Remember that? Well, the Gospels don’t have it... but word on the street (tradition) to this day has it that as the crowd skulked away, a woman standing behind Jesus, described by a witness as wearing a cloak covered in the sands of the deserts, roughly guessed as being in her late-40’s, stepped forward, picked a pebble off the ground in front of Jesus and daintily threw it at the ‘sinner’ lady. Jesus turned around, glared at the woman and said “I wish you wouldn’t DO that, Mom.”
Report abuse
jacersagain | Apr 19, 2011, 06:55 AM EDT
This post is belatedly and specifically directed at eiriamach: between my post of yesterday at 6.25pm EDT addressing barneyjo’s posts, which did not end with (...more) thus indicating I had no more to add in response to barneyjo, and the posting which arrived on ICentral at 8.19pm EDT, I had made another post directed “thunderously” at eiriamach which did not make it online. It did not begin with (More...) since it was the start of the post which did arrive online at 8.19pm ending with (More...) but was not posted online so my post of 8.19pm was actually the second part of the post that did not make it online, thereby throwing my post of 8.19 all out of line. I’ll try to post it again (if it appears, it’ll be above this post) and I hope eiriamach reads it as a first posting, followed by the 8.19pm post. If anything, I hope it shows how pathetic her latest responses are, almost slipping into JuneAnnette’s frame of mind.
Report abuse
eiriamach | Apr 19, 2011, 05:24 AM EDT
Palm Sunday, coming into Jerusalem, and I'm reminded: "I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness" (John 12:46). For you, Jacers, does the word "everyone" really mean *everyone*? It seems to mean only people who share your "tradition," your doctrine, your beliefs, your sexual orientation, your dismissal of bible reading, and your insistence that only "men" can legislate morality and minister to the faithful. It seems that to your way of thinking, Christ's "everyone" is a handful of people very much like you even when you write about how many millions of Catholics there still are.
Report abuse
eiriamach | Apr 19, 2011, 05:15 AM EDT
Jacers, I'm guessing that someone at IC has been trying to please you because I see stories here about Martin Sheen's strong Catholic faith and Pierce Brosnan's. Someone is trying to balance out bad news with uplifting words, so be happy. There really is no need for you to complain about bias in IC's handling of news. It's painful to read many stories about scandals in the church, but there will be more, for sure, because prelates refuse to heed Christ's warning to the apostles not to be lords of creation but servants and shepherds. Now I must tell you this: after having spent much of my youth working for equal rights and justice, I have little patience left in my old age for those who arrogantly demean women, gays, evangelicals, any social group-- for any reason. If your religion tells you to disparage others, then perhaps you should treat it like the offending eye in Christ's words quoted by BarneyJ and cast it from you, for the devil is in it, and if you cannot recognize the devil, well, that's just a devilish trick, to make a mindless zealot of you. It's bigotry, no matter the source, and you ought to reject it. You hand out many criticisms in general terms, never or rarely backing them with any specifics; instead you simply cite your church's teaching. Teaching *explains why* you think as you do but is not and never can be a justification for or evidence of truth for others who are not already singing in your choir! So I ask you again to respect the diversity of visitors to IC.
Report abuse
- Horse disemboweled and sliced open in horrific.
- Chilling testimony before congressional hearing
- Senator Schumer says Irish deserve a separate...
- Bill O'Reilly claims the Obama administration...
- Irish footballer under investigation after...
- Irish politician refuses to back down on...
- Census shows more Catholics than Protestants...
- Gerry Adams accuses British government of...
- 'You attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims'
- Enda Kenny rejects Dublin Archbishop's claims...
Report abuse