The church’s unwillingness to begin “a painful process of renewal” in the wake of the clerical sexual abuse scandal has left Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin “disheartened and discouraged.” The archbishop was most discouraged by the “drip-by-drip, never-ending revelation about child abuse and the disastrous way it was handled.” He said, “There are still strong forces which would prefer that the truth did not emerge.... There are worrying signs that despite solid regulations and norms, these are not being followed with the rigor required.” Noting the continuing need for accountability, Archbishop Martin said, “I am struck by the level of disassociation by people from any sense of responsibility.” Archbishop Martin also said the Irish church needed to look carefully at priestly formation. He said that in the future Dublin’s seminarians, deacons and lay pastoral workers will share some of their studies together with an eye to creating a better culture of collaborative ministry. “The narrow culture of clericalism has to be eliminated,” Archbishop Martin said.
Dublin Archbishop Discouraged by Denial
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
As we prepare for a new papacy, an important question faces the church: What foundations do we inherit from Pope Francis’ bold reimagining of Catholic moral theology? How will the church carry forward the vision he nurtured—a vision both thoroughly traditional and courageously new?
Somehow, incredibly, this celibate, elderly man often doled out some of the best and most valuable parenting advice I’ve received along the way.
America’s editors on the ground in Rome discuss the latest conclave news and the work that remain for whoever is elected as Pope Francis’ successor.
Much of what you hear about who the next pope will be, spoken with enormous confidence by people in the know, is often completely contradictory.