ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID Martin did not pull his punches on Monday night when he spoke about the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland. His primary target was that narrow culture of clericalism in the church and its defenders, lay and clerical. It has to be eliminated, he said. This culture is at the very core of the three things which he said so disheartened and discouraged him: those strong forces which would prefer that the truth did not emerge about clerical child sex abuse; his belief that Catholics do not have a true sense of the crisis of faith that exists in Ireland; and his greatest discouragement, the failure of interaction between the church and young people.
That he has decided to confront these issues is entirely consistent with the honesty and courage he has shown in his dealings with the clerical child sex abuse issue since becoming Archbishop of Dublin in May 2004. This is illustrated through the extent of his co-operation with the Murphy commission, despite internal resistance, and the manner in which he has addressed child protection in his own archdiocese.
In many meetings with abuse victims and their representatives over the years, mostly in private, he has earned a uniquely high degree of trust. That may have been dented last February when, on his return from meeting Pope Benedict with the other Irish bishops in Rome, it was felt by the abused that his wings had been clipped. But their response yesterday to his comments on Monday night indicates they are reassured. What Archbishop Martin has learned in his encounters with them appears to fuel his determination. It also explains his impatience with others who refuse to wake up to the catastrophic truth of how church authorities in Ireland covered up such abuse.
But he went deeper in his address when it came to faith and the young. He noted that already one, maybe two, generations are lost to the church in Dublin where there are now 10 times more priests over 70 than there are under 40. He placed great emphasis on the centrality of the parish and lay volunteers as the path to renewal. The parish, he suggests, is more important than the school in evangelising the young. That observation alone could yet shift the axis in the current debate on church/faith-run schools.
Although his encouragement of the parish and the laity is welcome, much more will be needed. A laity accustomed to being told to pay and pray will not transform itself overnight into a proactive, dynamic force. It requires leadership at national and local level. It needs to be taught how to be and how to run the church, a role from which it was excluded in the past. That will require more clear and specific direction than set out by Archbishop Martin on Monday.
There is much to reflect on in this thought-provoking speech, even if it is unlikely to increase Archbishop Martin’s popularity among some of his clerical brothers and their defenders. Beyond that disappearing world, however, it will have earned him deserved praise and further respect.
