Dear Editor, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin seems to have the Catholic press firmly in his sight given his recent criticism. It is odd that he didn’t reserve some of his criticism for The Irish Times – a newspaper which published a report on an ‘abortion’ that it was later grudgingly forced into accepting never actually happened.
Furthermore, is it churlish of me to point out that under Archbishop Martin’s leadership in Dublin the diocese has been brought to a state of financial collapse, vocations to the priesthood have plummeted, priestly morale is at an all-time low and Mass attendance figures in large parts of the diocese are negligible. Perhaps this should be his focus?
During his speech the archbishop recalled his ad limina meeting with Pope Benedict XVI: “the Pope sat me down and immediately asked me: ‘where are the points of contact between the Catholic Church in Ireland and those places where the future culture of Ireland is being formed?’” It was a question that Archbishop Martin admits he was not expecting and wasn’t particularly prepared for.
I wonder would he be any better able to answer if Pope Francis were to ask him the question today?
Yours etc.,
Siobhan Scully,
Rialto,
Dublin 8.
