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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin sheds tears on "60 Minutes" as he discusses the impact on young children of abuse

Posted on Friday, March 02, 2012 at 02:41 PM

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Archbishop Diarmuid Martin shed tears on "60 Minutes" tonight as he recounted asking to see a class of eight-year old boys in a Dublin school so he could imagine what it was like for them to be abused.

He did so after meeting a man who was horrifically abused at that age by a priest in his own archdiocese.

It was an emotional highpoint of a "60 Minutes" profile that portrayed Martin as a hero of the Irish church and a voice for the children who had been abused.

The Irish Times Religious Affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry made it clear that Martin alone among the top hierarchy had come to the aid of those abused by releasing the documents detailing the charges against hundreds of priests.

He alone among top church figures retained the loyalty of the faithful, McGarry said, pointing out that his boss, Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of All Ireland, had been totally compromised after admitting covering up allegations made by boys many years ago into the notorious pedophile Father Brendan Smyth.

By so doing Martin clearly saved many other children from abuse and stopped the cover up..

The "60 Minutes" show painted a devastating portrait of the downfall of the church in Ireland with vocations plummeting and fall off in attendance as dramatic as only 2 per cent mass attendance in some parishes, down from over 90 per cent.

Martin is the one bright star remaining in that church and his stand off with Rome and those continuing the abuse cover up was clearly outlined on "60 Minutes."

As I stated last week here Martin is the greatest living Irishman a man who has told truth to power in the most courageous and straightforward way. The "60 Minutes" profile merely underlined that.

He has refused to tolerate child abuse practitioners among his clergy, has named and shamed them and has handed over every available file on them to the proper authorities.

His acts have made him deeply unpopular in Rome and among those apologists who would somehow make child abuse a temporary little evil in the Catholic Church.
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He is a turbulent priest, a popular figure in Irish history who stands with his people not the powers that be.

For that reason he is Ireland’s greatest living person. The "60 Minutes" profile will only add to the legend.

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49 Comments

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IrishDragoon | Apr 22, 2012, 09:43 PM EDT

Bishop Diarmuid Martin: YOU ROCK YOUR EMINENCE!!!!!! Glad to see that somebody in the clergy has a set! You're a cardinal to me! Bishop Diarmuid Martin FOR POPE!!!!!!!!!

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eiriamach | Mar 13, 2012, 08:35 AM EDT

Today's news of the US Roman Catholic Church's legal assaults on SNAP tells a story. It is not a story of penitence over clerical child abuse, nor is it a story of the Church's desire to amend its ways. SNAP is the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. David Clohessy, SNAP director, has faced subpoenas and lengthy interrogations by Church lawyers. He said, "It was not a fishing expedition.... It was a fishing, crabbing, shrimping, trash-collecting, draining the pond expedition. The real motive is to harass and discredit and bankrupt SNAP, while discouraging victims, witnesses, whistle-blowers, police, prosecutors and journalists from seeking our help.”

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Collette2 | Mar 07, 2012, 02:08 PM EST

Lokio,there would have to be skeletons with all of them. It takes only one voice in the desert to bring them out. HermitTalker is just that, a hermit. I'm darned sure he wouldn't be so forgiving if it affected him. Then maybe he was given an offer too good to refuse, an old mafia expresion.

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eiriamach | Mar 05, 2012, 06:10 PM EST

I do not wish to oppose a homily on love and forgiveness such as hermitTalker writes. However-- and it's a 'however' that echoes down the ages from those who wrote the words of the Gospel-- a glance into history should give us some wariness of the 'religion of the heart.' Read Barneyjo's clear and well thought-out summary of the Irish church experience and ask: are love and forgiveness the *solution* to Irish Catholic Church problems? It makes people feel better to purge pain and bitterness with feelings of love and forgiveness. But the religion of the heart needs tempering with the religion of the mind and spirit. Doesn't Jesus desire also an amendment of life from penitents? Where is the RCC reform agenda, its program for sinning no more? Show me the reforms! Give me a reason to expect that the deep-rooted criminality of past decades is not still deeply rooted with a cover-up at the ready. "The Church is not a democracy" is a blunt, crude, authoritarian refusal to address the legitimate concerns of the people. It is Christian to forgive and to accept sinners because we are all sinners, but it is foolhardy to trust without a foundation of clerical responsibility to the people of God and transparency in their exercise of authority. I've seen nothing like that yet from RCC. Forgive and feel better if you wish, but please stay wary for the sake of those who have suffered.

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ciaradexy | Mar 05, 2012, 02:55 PM EST

Hermit-would you feel the same if it was your child who was raped? Put yourself in the shoes of their parent.

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hermitTalker | Mar 05, 2012, 10:52 AM EST

I care deeply about the abuse of children which few boys or gilrs escaped in every culture or nation ever, from every professional group and within the family. I also feel for those who are still angry at the hurt they and others endured. I also feel for those who indict all religion or Catholics only. My own recommemndation is to look boyond the flawed humanness of the abusibg teacher, cleric or "funny" grandfather/uncle/older sibling and see JESUS as the only absolute Rock and Lover whose Holy Spirit is inside each of us waiitng for us to ask for the PEACE that only He can give. We can wish our enemy sent to jail or comdemn to hell or to die roaring, or drink ourselves stupid, or attack anything that is Good- but that does not give us closure. HE who forgave our sins of hate, unforgiveness, revenge, gossip, or other "body sins" will let that happen to us IF we give permission. We have that power. You have it. Hating lets the Evil One control you.

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lokionline | Mar 04, 2012, 05:33 PM EST

Anyone who has had personal contact with Diarmuid Martin will tell you a different tale. I went to the same school as Diarmuid Martin in Dublin.

Marian College has it's own scandals that have never been addressed. A fact well known to Martin.

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ciaradexy | Mar 04, 2012, 03:49 PM EST

Oldboreen, it was the catholic church who instilled fear and shame in the Irish people. Im adopted, my birth mother was forced to give me up. When she was in her 20s and was migrating to Australia, she found out that her sister was actually her mother. Again, the local priest instilled shame in her family and told her mother to either give her up or make up a story. People were ruled by fear and shame back then. Kinda like voodoo and witchcraft.

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McNamara31 | Mar 04, 2012, 03:08 PM EST

RoryTrup... Did the other all have the same policy of cover up and all looking the other way along with following the Vatican's poicy of no direction for years? This is what makes Bishop Martin a man of integrity to many of us who post here at IC...Bishop Martin followed Christ as all the rest followed the misdirected Vatican and the last two Popes. Again I say, God Bless Diarmuid Martin a true man of God.

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MCCOLGAN1492 | Mar 04, 2012, 09:36 AM EST

And we get stuck with Mr. Pomp and Circumstance in NY..... To top it off our "village idiot" has the nerve to try and get involved in how "Good Catholics" vote. Maybe he should pay some F----- Taxes before he opens his Fat Mouth!

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oldboreen | Mar 04, 2012, 06:09 AM EST

@Barneyjo-a thoughtful and balanced response.I would not disagree with any of it, indeed I would commend it to all the posters on this site. For generations the Irish state failed miserably in terms of its social responsibility to the vulnerable. Successive governments, almost entirely men incidentally,largely drawn from the affluent middle class, were persuaded by the church that they alone were suitable guardians of the unwanted in Irish society. It seemed the perfect contract at the time-for years no one bothered to check. We know the result. An uncle was abused by a religious in the early 1920's. No one in my family listened to him.It was all "imagination" they said,it never happened. He was dismissed as being 'odd' or 'quare'-just one of thousands of ruined lives.

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JohnE67 | Mar 04, 2012, 03:49 AM EST

Losing out on being a Cardinal is nothing...doing what you KNOW is right on this earthly coil is much more important imho...

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noeldoyle | Mar 03, 2012, 10:53 PM EST

He is a a very brave Archbishop that stood up for the abused. But, he paid dearly and lost out on becoming a Cardinal. He deserves huge support from the Irish people. lets give him that support.

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barneyjo | Mar 03, 2012, 07:52 PM EST

@oldboreen - with respect, it is about all you say, but so much more as far as the Irish Catholic Church is concerned. It is about the attainment and maintenance of absolute power over Irish Society; it is about the fundamental abuse of that power by the church on Irish Society, over generations; it is about denial, obfuscation, deceit,duplicitousness of standards and the perversion of the truth. That many organs of social care and justice within the Irish State failed lamentably in their role is true. The fact that many of these organs were operated by the Catholic Church at the behest of the State is equally true. And as regards over-deference, well it was the Catholic Church that insisted that deference should be a part of the relationship between the Clergy and the Faithful in the first place was it not? It was and remains the legacy of Cardinal Paul Cullen that an imbalance of power and deferenence was created and retained by Clerical Ireland. And we now know what that has led to. Bear in mind the maxim "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" The Hierarchy and the Clergy in Ireland (and elsewhere) made choices; bad choices. They could have chosen otherwise; they did not. And we are all now living with the consequences of those poor choices; some poor souls more than others!!

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barneyjo | Mar 03, 2012, 07:50 PM EST

@oldboreen - with respect, it is about all you say, but so much more as far as the Irish Catholic Church is concerned. It is about the attainment and maintenance of absolute power over Irish Society; it is about the fundamental abuse of that power by the church on Irish Society, over generations; it is about denial, obfuscation, deceit,duplicitous of standards and the perversion of the truth. That many organs of social care and justice within the Irish State failed lamentably in their role is true. The fact that many of these organs were operated by the Catholic Church at the behest of the State is equally true. And as regards over-deference, well it was the Catholic Church that insisted that deference should be a part of the relationship between the Clergy and the Faithful in the first place was it not? It was and remains the legacy of Cardinal Paul Cullen that an imbalance of power and deferenence was created and retained by Clerical Ireland. And we now know what that has led to. Bear in mind the maxim "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" The Hierarchy and the Clergy in Ireland (and elsewhere) made choices; bad choices. They could have chosen otherwise; they did not. And we are all now living with the consequences of those poor choices; some poor souls more than others!!

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