Irish reactionPope Benedict XVI has left a significant legacy to the Catholic Church, Irish bishops have said.
Bishop Leo O’Reilly of Kilmore said that from Ireland’s point of view, his most important writing was his Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, published on March 19th, 2010, “in the middle of the worst period of the child abuse scandals”.
“A letter to the Catholics of a single country is almost unprecedented, and this one was written in very plain English and presented in a manner that made it accessible to all,” he said. “We will always be grateful for his care and support of the church in Ireland at this time of crisis.”
The bishop said Pope Benedict’s most important legacy would be “his determined efforts to confront the issue of abuse of children in the church.
“He made some decisive changes in canon law to enable bishops to act more effectively in dealing with those who have abused children,” said Bishop O’Reilly.
“But he also recognised that abuse of children was not a problem confined to or peculiar to some parts of the world, but was an issue which every local church has to face. He put the safeguarding of children at the top of the agenda for the whole church.”
“Independent-minded”
Bishop O’Reilly said he was “deeply impressed” by the pope’s decision to retire and said it showed how “independent-minded” he was. “He is regarded as a staunch traditionalist, but he has the freedom to depart from tradition when conscience demands it,” he said.
It was “entirely consistent with his character that he has chosen to retire when he felt no longer able to discharge his essential duties as pope. It is also a mark of the man that he had the courage to take a step that is almost unprecedented.”
The pope had a relatively short pontificate, but had “left a great legacy to the church”, Bishop O’Reilly added.
Reacting earlier to the resignation, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said his decision was “courageous”. Archbishop Martin said the pope had a “quiet sense of humour”, but was much happier writing books and preaching.
He praised the freedom that the pope showed in speaking out against the “filth” in the church regarding sex abuse.
“He talked about the filth that is in the life of the church,” said Archbishop Martin. “That isn’t the language of diplomacy – it is the language of someone who is free . . . When he became pope, certainly the procedures in the Vatican and the statistics changed substantially and a clearer line was taken.”
Bishop John Buckley of Cork and Ross added his voice. He had met the pope several times and was “impressed by his holiness and simplicity. He was also, despite being one of the great theologians of our time, easily understood and remarkably clear,” he said.
“These qualities made him embrace the social media forums. . . including Twitter.”
Hallmark of papacy
He said that since the pope’s resignation, the chief rabbi and others had referred to his “efforts at reaching out to other religions. This was a hallmark of his papacy.”
He praised the pope’s efforts for world peace, which he said had been recognised on an international stage by many politicians at home and abroad. He also praised his work in the area of child protection.
“We now have procedures in this country and in this diocese for dealing with such matters that have been proven to work very effectively,” he said.
