See David Gibson's glowing piece on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin--Diarmuid is pronounced "deer-mwid." Archbishop Martin has had a long and successful career in the church, which, until now, has been accomplished quietly. He was appointed co-adjutor of the Archdiocese of Dublin in 2003 and became Archbishop in 2004. At the time of his appointment as co-adjutor, he said:
The church in the past was extraordinarily authoritarian, in some cases one might even say abusively authoritarian, it was actually disrespectful of people's autonomy in many ways. I think we have to avoid any type of authoritarianism, and also any type of clericalism -- which is some kind of closed idea of a priestly grouping that somehow or other seeks privilege rather than being there to serve the mission of the Church.
Rather than berating young people for cohabiting, he lobbied for better governmental policies to support working couples. He acknowledges a growing "rift" between the church and young people, but--shock!--says the blame does not lie principally with young people. He is open to discussing priestly celibacy and women's ordination.
He also said he has many friends who are gay, and said he understood their feelings or anger and alienation from the church, though again he backed church teaching that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman. In 2005, when the Vatican announced a policy that seemed designed to bar homosexuals from seminaries, Martin was diplomatic but straightforward in his view: "You don't write off a candidate for the priesthood simply because he is a gay man."
In 2009, Ireland was rocked with two reports exposing the abuse and molestation of children in the church's charge. Archbishop Martin apologized immediately and had a letter read in all Dublin's Catholic churches which said, "I offer to each and every survivor, my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened to them. I am aware however that no words of apology will ever be sufficient." Not long after, he openly criticized his colleagues, and called on responsible church heirarchs to explain their actions or resign.
This week, Pope Benedict convened a meeting of Irish bishops to discuss the scandal. News reports since say that Martin was "weakened" by the meeting and had "his wings clipped." Indeed, in the day or two since, Martin has caught flak both from abuse survivors and their families who said the Vatican had not done enough to accept responsibility for the scandal, and also from other members of the heirarchy for not being supportive enough of priests. His words from last year seem more applicable than ever:
"What is clear to me is that young people in search for faith or in dialogue or even in conflict with the concept of faith, judge individuals and religious institutions in terms of integrity. They may feel little identity or affinity with institutional expressions of religion, but they can respect the personal integrity of those who belong to the institution or even those who have leadership within institutions. If however they perceive the Church as an institution standing up for its own institutional interests, then they will be unmerciful in their rejection and hostility."
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