A delegation from the Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI) on 26 November 2015 met with Archbishop Eamon Martin in Armagh. They asked him if he could give some support to the Irish priests who have been silenced. Archbishop Eamon Martin replied it was a matter for the Heads of the relevant Religious Orders and the Vatican CDF. The ACI delegation also asked if the bishops were meeting with the ACP and Archbishop Eamon replied that he meets with ACP members very regularly.
A couple of comments:
1. I am sick and tired of Irish bishops washing their hands of the censoring of priests, because it happens that all of us currently under various forms of censorship are members of religious orders. This ignores the fact that the very public censoring, and all the controversy around it, has had a serious detrimental effect on the Irish Church, and that should be a concern of its leadership. Also the procedures used by the CDF in dealing with these cases is clearly and blatantly unjust. I have said and written this publicly many times, and no bishop has ever attempted to contradict it. They couldn’t, because it is self-evident and incontestable. So, how can the leaders of the Irish Church, the bishops, continue to say that an issue that shows up serious abuse and injustice in the practice of the Church is of no concern to them?
2. Bishop Eamon Martin has never met with a delegation from the ACP. Some years ago, while he was still coadjutor to Sean Brady, Sean McDonagh and myself met with the Priests Council of Armagh diocese, and he was at the meeting. (Those meetings, when we went around the country meeting Priests Councils, were done by us because the bishops refused our request for a meeting with them. So for bishop Eamon to say that he meets with ACP members very regularly might be accurate at one level, because some of the priests of Armagh diocese are members, but he has never sat down with a delegation of the Leadership to discuss the issues that the ACP are consistently trying to raise with the Irish Bishops. So, his answer in this instance is a best a half-truth.
