CARDINAL SEÁN Brady and the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, have described as significant and very satisfactory, their meeting yesterday with Pope Benedict.
They said it had given rise to a significant initiative – the pope’s promised pastoral letter to the “faithful of Ireland”.
Cardinal Brady admitted that he was very saddened to “be back here again to discuss the painful question of child sexual abuse”.
He said he and Archbishop Martin had had a “good meeting” with the pope and the other Vatican representatives and he drew attention to the strong language of the Vatican statement which described Pope Benedict as “deeply disturbed and distressed” by the contents of the Murphy commission report.
The pope, according to the statement, also “shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland”.
Archbishop Martin said that the pope felt the sense of shame generated by the Murphy report.
“Anyone who has read that report, no matter how much they knew about the problems of the church in Dublin or in Ireland or anywhere in the world, anybody would be ashamed and the pope said as much,” said Archbishop Martin.
Asked if yesterday’s meeting and the ensuing Vatican statement would go some way to answering criticism about the perceived silence of the Holy See in the wake of the publication of the report, Archbishop Martin said: “What appeared to us today is that maybe things were not said but certainly people were reflecting on matters.
“There was a clear indication from all of those who were there today, including the pope, that they have been giving this matter attention.
“The particular statement of a pastoral letter from the pope to the Irish church is a very significant one – the only one I remember was a pastoral letter to the Chinese church which was one of the more important documents of John Paul II’s pontificate
“This will be quite a significant document which will indicate some programmes.
“This a letter that still has to be written, so it is not going to come within the next few days, but it is going to be a substantive document, one that comes from the pope himself.”
Asked what might be the indications of the pope’s letter, Archbishop Martin suggested that it may well call for “a very significant reorganisation of the church in Ireland”, although neither he nor Cardinal Brady were able to reveal the details of such a reorganisation.
As for speculation that the Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray, had been in Rome this week to offer his resignation, both Cardinal Brady and Archbishop Martin said that they did not know the precise details of Bishop Murray’s current situation:
“I understand that Bishop Murray has come to Rome, has been to the Congregation of Bishops and we await developments”, said Cardinal Brady.
Archbishop Martin confirmed that he had written to Bishop Dermot O’Mahony, one of the bishops much mentioned in the report.
“I asked him not to carry out Confirmations in the coming year, to distance himself from the International Pilgrimage Trust, which he has done, and I asked that he would not be part of the diocesan administration in any way.”
Archbishop Martin argued that the point of yesterday’s meeting in Rome was not about “heads rolling”.
“It is not just a question of heads rolling, I have said very clearly people should assume their own responsibility.
“It is good to see that has begun with people doing it in public, that is a new thing for the church in Ireland”.
Archbishop Martin also spoke of the need for the Irish church to go through a process of renewal so that “it can go forward as a church that is confident in itself and has the confidence of the people”.
The archbishop also said that studies show that the percentage of paedophiles in any society remains constant, so the church “must ensure that paedophiles do not drift in either as priests or in any other occupation”.