ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said Pope Benedict’s pastoral letter to Irish Catholics is likely to be sent before Lent.
Ash Wednesday this year is on February 17th and he has also indicated that a synod of the Irish Catholic Church is unlikely.
On December 11th, following publication of the Murphy report, Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Martin met Pope Benedict at the Vatican.
Afterwards the Pope said in a statement that he planned issuing a pastoral letter “to the faithful of Ireland” in which he would “clearly indicate the initiatives that are to be taken in response to the situation”.
Archbishop Martin was chief celebrant at a World Day of Peace Mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Dublin’s Donnybrook yesterday morning.
Speaking afterwards to The Irish Times he said the pope’s pastoral letter could be expected “maybe even before Lent.” He hoped it “would contain some indications as to how we go into and celebrate Lent because Lent is a period of penance. Lent is a period of renewal. Lent is a period which leads us to the resurrection of Easter.”
As to the current situation in the archdiocese he said: “Well, the auxiliary bishops of Dublin are still auxiliary bishops until their resignation is accepted or not accepted by the pope. And we’ll have to wait and see. This is Christmas time and it’ll be some time, as I’ve said, before we have an indication.” Asked whether he had any comment to make on the position of the Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan, he said “no”.
As to whether a synod was likely he was “not too sure we’re quite ready for a synod of the Irish church and I’m not too sure if people quite understand what a synod of the Irish church might be like”.
He continued: “It could be anything from a very traditional canonical synod to an assembly of the Irish church. But I’ve said an ongoing talk shop may not be the answer either. I think that we do requires leadership and some of us are called to do that. That’s what I’ll try and do.”
He recalled that “in the Pro-Catherdal at Christmas I said one thing which I’ve been reflecting on myself and that is in the history of God’s relations with his people that there’s been a history of infidelity on the part of his people but of fidelity by God, and that when we talk about reform and change and renewal of the church we have to turn there, to God, to give us the leadership and to open our hearts to a conversion of ourselves.
“That, for me, is the challenge to see how we can get the entire believing community in Dublin to renew itself in its faith.”
He said: “When I talk about renewal it’s not simply about renewal of child protection structures it’s a much deeper renewal. The church in Dublin, the church in Ireland really needs that and we’ve to start looking in ways that are very different.”
He added: “Cardinal Daly, in that sense, was a person who was ahead of his times in the way he thought.
“He was open to other traditions in Europe and I think we have to start, we are moving out of an . . . occasionally you have to have these seismic moments when you have a real change in the way . . . a qualitative leap to a different view of church.
“I’ve been reflecting a lot. I’ve been talking to people about it. But I’m not going to make any statements until I have something to say on a broad range of issues.”
On Cardinal Daly in particular he said the he was “a man who spanned a huge range of Irish, recent church history, both in his academic life and as a bishop in three dioceses.
“He went to be cardinal in Armagh when he was quite on in years and wasn’t well. But he accepted responsibility and leadership. Very, very much so.
“He was a man . . . an extraordinary man in his rejection of violence. That didn’t make him popular with everybody, the rejection of violence, but he was absolutely consistent in that.”
Asked about the late cardinal’s handling of allegations of clerical child sex abuse, he said “I can’t say, honestly. I was away at the time. I just don’t have any . . . I have no idea what the situation there was in his .”
