Dublin, Ireland, May 14, 2010 / 00:31 am
In a candid talk on May 10, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin discussed the current state and hoped for future of the Catholic Church in Ireland, addressing not only the recently surfaced clerical sex abuse cases but the underlying problem of Catholics within the country experiencing a “crisis of faith.”
In remarks to the local Irish Knights of Columbanus at Ely Place in Dublin, Archbishop Martin gave a blunt and thorough analysis of the problems within the Church of Ireland today and offered a few thoughts on what measures can be taken to strengthen and improve the community for the future. He especially underlined the need for a renewed, “parish-based” evangelization within Irish culture.
“On a purely personal level, as Diarmuid Martin,” he began, “I have never since becoming Archbishop of Dublin felt so disheartened and discouraged about the level of willingness to really begin what is going to be a painful path of renewal and of what is involved in that renewal.”
The most obvious reason for discouragement, the archbishop explained, “is the drip-by-drip never-ending revelation about child sexual abuse and the disastrous way it was handled.”
Although it is a fact that child sex abuse is more prevalent in other institutions, Archbishop Martin said it “should never appear in any way as an attempt to down play the gravity of what took place in the Church of Christ.” “The Church is different; the Church is a place where children should be the subject of special protection and care.”