It could hardly have been a more public reprimand to a man who has openly championed the need for accountability in the Irish Catholic church. But Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's chosen method for delivering the Pope's message last week was notably low key.
Far from launching a verbal "hand grenade" during a speech at a high profile gathering of the faithful, for example, he quietly buried the news in a longer three-page letter which concerned itself mainly with the logistics of administering the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.
"Following presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict, it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as auxiliary bishops and are to be assigned revised responsibilities within the diocese. This means that they will be available to administer confirmation in any part of the diocese in the coming year," he wrote in the letter sent to priests in his archdiocese.
Some of his fellow bishops also privately confided last week that the first they heard of the Pope's decision was when they turned on the radio to hear the news headlines.
Be that as it may, Martin is nobody's fool.
He will have been only too aware that once the contents of the above paragraph from the letter became known, regardless of the context in which it was delivered, its impact would be immediate.
Challenge to authority
Pope Benedict's decision not to accept the resignations of two men who report directly to Martin represents arguably the most serious challenge to his authority since he succeeded Cardinal Desmond Connell as archbishop in April 2004.
This is in no small part due to the fact that both men only offered their resignations to Rome after Martin repeatedly called on all of those bishops named in the report of the Murphy commission to explain themselves.Ultimately, the pressure he applied led Bishops Walsh and Field to make their dramatic announcement that they were resigning last Christmas Eve.
The fact that neither were heavily criticised in Judge Yvonne Murphy's report has prompted some to suggest that the Vatican deemed the report's conclusions insufficient grounds for resignation, amid concerns of a potential "domino effect" which such a precedent would set.
This is particularly true if, as seems highly likely, it is to emerge that other Irish bishops have also mishandled allegations of abuse, although it does not explain why the resignation of another bishop who featured in the report, Jim Moriarty, was accepted by the Pope last April.
Vatican observers have pointed to the fact that the decision not to accept the original resignations is highly unusual. As a result, others believe it can only be explained by the fact that there was communication between the two bishops and the Holy See since they announced their decision.
The Vatican correspondent with the Milan daily newspaper Il Giornale, Andrea Tornelli, even suggested last week that the two auxiliaries had sent a dossier to the Congregation of Bishops prompting the Vatican to reconsider their resignations.
Writing in his blog, Tornelli said Bishops Walsh and Field had made it clear to the Holy See that, while they had offered to resign in a spirit of healing and reconciliation, they themselves felt that they had done nothing wrong. Although falling short of a full withdrawal by the two men of their resignations, such actions may well have been seen by the Pope's advisers as a good reason to reject them.
In the absence of any sign that Rome will explain the decision publicly – Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has said it is not "policy" to comment on resignations which had not been accepted – the decision raises a number of troubling questions for Martin.
The harsh reality is that he now faces the prospect of working on a daily basis with two men whose removal from office he championed, however indirectly.
They meanwhile have the imprimatur of a higher authority – and in the Catholic church there is no greater power than the Pope himself – and could be forgiven if they become emboldened in their dealings with their superior.
It remains to be seen how Dublin parents will react when both men start to resume their participation in confirmation ceremonies next year. But in a high stakes game of clerical poker, they have come away with a "trump card".
Not surprised
Prominent clerical abuse survivor and campaigner Marie Collins watched last week's events with mixed emotions. In one sense she was "not surprised at all" that
...
...
Falling into line
For all his outspokenness on issues relating to clerical sexual abuse, Diarmuid Martin has pointedly confined himself to criticising his fellow bishops and priests in Ireland. You do not become an archbishop by being a vocal critic of the Vatican or its teachings.
Martin is also a career Vatican diplomat, well versed in how to operate within its intricate power structures, rather than openly questioning its decisions.
So the fact that he did not respond to queries from this newspaper last week – he is understood to be on annual leave in Italy – indicates that he has little intention of breaking rank.
Some also believe that despite how it may appear, it is highly unlikely that the decision to reject the resignations of Walsh and Field would have been made without his agreement. As a result, they say this is no longer a resigning matter, if it ever really was.
Michael Kelly, deputy editor of the Irish Catholic, which was first to publish details of the leaked letter from Martin last week, says he would probably have known about the Pope's decision for at least two weeks, as the entire Vatican closes for business during the month of August. Others suggest he may have known since as far back as March.
Kelly says the decision confirms the suspicions which some, such as abuse survivors, have that Martin effectively had his "wings clipped" during last February's meeting of the Irish bishops with the Pope in Rome.
It might also help to explain what some believe have been his increasingly "tetchy" public statements in the intervening months.
"The Archbishop was not neutral in all this. He wanted them to resign, he was very clear on that," Kelly says. "So they've won, if you like. The Vatican has backed the auxiliaries rather than their archbishop. it believes there has been an injustice done against them.
"So to some extent they have been rehabilitated, and whether Diarmuid Martin has confidence in them is no longer really relevant. The people above him in the Vatican do."
Kelly believes the Vatican is generally happy with the line Martin has taken in confronting clerical sexual abuse in his archdiocese, but is anxious to avoid any public disputes among fellow bishops.
"This decision would not have been foisted upon Martin. He may have been reluctantly convinced to accept it, but if he had been dead set against it, I don't think it would have happened. They would have been worried about forcing him to resign, so in some way, he has reluctantly agreed to a compromise," he adds.
As the Pope prepares to send a hardline apostolic delegation here to commence his much publicised "visitation" of the Irish Catholic church, this begs the further question: has the search for a potential successor to Diarmuid Martin begun?
August 15, 2010
The Irish Times - June 1, 2010, Patsy McGarry
...
In his letter to the Irish Catholic church last March Pope Benedict said he intended “to hold an apostolic visitation of certain dioceses in Ireland, as well as seminaries and religious congregations”.
Yesterday the Vatican announced the visitation would begin with the four Catholic archdioceses as well as St Patrick’s Seminary at Maynooth and the Irish College in Rome.
It said: “Through this visitation, the Holy See intends to offer assistance to the bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful as they seek to respond adequately to the situation caused by the tragic cases of abuse perpetrated by priests and religious upon minors.
“It is also intended to contribute to the desired spiritual and moral renewal that is already being vigorously pursued by the church in Ireland.”
The Vatican said the visitation would explore the past handling of cases of abuse and the assistance owed to victims.
It would also monitor the effectiveness of current procedures for preventing abuse and seek possible improvements.
The visitors named yesterday by the pope were Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster and primate of England and Wales, for the Archdiocese of Armagh; Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, for the Archdiocese of Dublin; Archbishop Thomas Christopher Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, for the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly; and Archbishop Terrence Thomas Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa, for the Archdiocese of Tuam. The apostolic visitor to Maynooth and the Irish College in Rome will be Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.
The apostolic visitors to the religious congregations will be Fr Joseph Tobin, former superior of the Redemptorist congregation and Jesuit Fr Gero McLoughlin who will both visit men’s religious congregations. Sr Sharon Holland, of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and a former Vatican official, as well as Sr Mairín McDonagh, of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, will visit female religious congregations
[...]The sexual abuse of a child is and always was a crime in civil law; it is
and always was a crime canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful. One of
the most heartbreaking aspects of the Report is that while Church leaders –
Bishops and religious superiors - failed, almost every parent who came to the
diocese to report abuse clearly understood the awfulness of what has involved.
Almost exclusively their primary motivation was to try to ensure that what
happened to their child, or in some case to themselves, did not happen to other
children.Their motivation was not about money or revenge; it was quite simply
about that most basic human sense of right and wrong and that basic Christian
motivation of concern for others. The survivors of abuse who courageously
remained determined to have the full truth heard by all deserve our recognition
and admiration.[...]The hurt done to a child through sexual abuse is horrific.
Betrayal of trust is compounded by the theft of self esteem. The horror can last
a lifetime.Today, it must be unequivocally recalled that the Archdiocese ofDublin
failed to recognise the theft of childhood which survivors enduredand the
diocese failed in its responses to them when they had the courage tocome
forward, compounding the damage done to their innocence.For that no words of
apology will ever be sufficient.ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID MARTIN
on the occasion of the publication of theCommission of Investigation in the sexual abuse of children by priestsin the Archdiocese of Dublin 26th November 2009
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten