Tag Archives: Diarmuid Martin

Marriage / family, Pastoral Ministry

Dublin Archbishop: “The Church Needs to Do a Reality Check”

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That the Catholic Church needs a “reality check” on its entire sexual theology would seem an obvious platitude to most people in the real world –  but when the admission comes from a senior archbishop, it’s worth taking note.

Dublin’s archbishop was responding to the comprehensive win for same – marriage by Irish voters, and especially by those of his own archdiocese. Martin has previously said that we should respect and value same – sex couples, and that although he would personally be voting against, he declined to tell others how to vote.

Let us pray that the Irish bishops at the family synod in October will take these excellent sentiments with them, for presentation to their colleagues.

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said if the referendum was an affirmation of the views of young people, the church had a “huge task in front of it”.

Large crowds gathered in Dublin as the results of the referendum were announced

“I think really the church needs to do a reality check,” he told RTE.

 – BBC News.

Catholic_Church, News

Archbishop: Homophobia Amounts to "Godophobia"

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…anybody who doesn’t show love towards gay and lesbian people is insulting God. They are not just homophobic if they do that – they are actually Godophobic because God loves every one of those people

– Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin

This is hardly revolutionary stuff – it’s embedded in the Catechism, and in all formal Church documents on the subject of homosexuality: we deserve to be treated with “respect, compassion and sensitivity”, and any violence or malice, in words or actions, is to be deeply deplored.

Sadly, for too many Catholic bishops and some orthotoxic conservative Catholics, it’s a principle which is simply ignored, which is why it’s welcome whenever a leading cleric states what should be routine. What’s even more widely ignored, is that other principle clearly stated in the documents, that unjust discrimination must be avoided. When Catholic leaders routinely apply that principle, and avoid all unjust discrimination in employment and elsewhere within the Church’s own institutions – that really will be something to celebrate!

HOMOPHOBIA is “insulting to God”, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has warned.

In the wake of the so-called ‘Pantigate’ controversy over homophobia comments made on RTE and a defamation settlement, Dr Martin said: “God never created anybody that he doesn’t love.”

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the senior cleric said this meant that “anybody who doesn’t show love towards gay and lesbian people is insulting God. They are not just homophobic if they do that – they are actually Godophobic because God loves every one of those people”.

MOCKED

Referring to the revelations made last week by TD Jerry Buttimer, that he was beaten, spat at, mocked and harassed because he was gay, Dr Martin expressed concern saying: “Certainly the sort of actions that we heard of this week of people being spat at because they were gay or ridiculed . . . that is not a Christian attitude. We have to have the courage to stand up and say that.”

He added: “We all belong to one another and there is no way we can build up a society in which people are excluded or insulted.

“We have to learn a new way in Ireland to live with our differences and for all of us to live with respect for one another.”

via  – Independent.ie.

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Irish Demand for Democracy – in Church

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The Irish Catholic Church, compared with other countries, has been notable for its belated response to the problem of clerical abuse.  Like other countries, for decades the bishops responded by cover-ups and denial.  Once finally forced out from cover, though, they have done more than any other country to finally deal appropriately with the problem.  the Ryan report, in its comprehensiveness and brutal honesty began the process.  That prompted a response from government, which launched a follow-up into the cover-ups by the bishops.  Teh public outcry, coupled with the firm resolve and frank apologies from the present Archbishop of Dublin, has led to more hand-wringing from Pope Benedict, who has promised a “pastoral letter” (as if that would help).  More usefully, four of the five bishops implicated in the Murphy report have been forced to resign, in what is for the church, a remarkable demonstration of accountability.(The fifth bishop insists he will not resign.  We shall see how long he can last, against the determination of archbishop Martin to scrub the barrel clean)

Equally impressive has been the response of the Irish public, who are finally beginning to ask the questions, and demand the responses, which really get to the real heart of the problem;  the fundamental causes.  Fr Timothy Radcliffe, in a recent address in Dublin, raised one issue:  that of the culture in the church obsessive control.  ow an opinon piece in the Irish Independent raises another, and proposes a remedy:  the church needs to introduce internal democracy.

Of course it should – as should church structures all around the world. (Not in the same form as parliamentary democracy,  not with equal votes for all:  but some form of democracy and shared decision taking is of crucial importance – just as it was for the early church at the very beginning.

Here is an extract from the piece in the Irish Independent, following the funeral of the former Primate of all-Ireland, Cardinal Daly.

Scandals must kickstart new era for Church

Observing the procession of aged men in their ceremonial robes, chatting among themselves as if at a clerical old boys’ reunion, I had an acute sense that the Catholic laity, be they of pious disposition or a la carte-minded, must mobilise to take churccontrol away from the ordained ministers who betrayed them and chart a new reform path for their Church.

The People of God, as the Church was defined by the Second Vatican Council, need to dismantle the clericalist pyramid of command structures that have dominated the mind-set since the First Vatican Council in 1870. That council lumbered the centralised system from Rome with the unverifiable dogma of papal infallibility and embedded a culture of unquestioning loyalty by a docile laity to a command system from the top down of Pope, cardinals, archbishops and bishops, not forgetting the Irish tradition of the infallibility of the parish priest.

The laity in Ireland must speak out now and demand a more democratic rather than medievalist church. Otherwise they will be expected to follow the paternalistic route which Pope Benedict plans to announce in his pre-Lenten pastoral letter to the Irish that will be interpreted as the mandate for church governance that is to be implemented by the two principal leaders of the Irish Church, Cardinal Brady and the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.

(Read more: Independent