Sir, – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin must be congratulated for his release of the findings of the recent survey on the family (Home News, February 28th).
Earlier in the month a spokesperson for the Irish bishops stated, “Any release of the Synod findings would undermine the integrity of the information collecting process if there was to be a comment from the Irish bishops.”
The bishops of England and Wales also refused to release their findings stating “according to the wishes of the Holy See the summary of the findings is confidential”.
We now have a record to be proud of. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is the only bishop in Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland who had the courage to ignore “the wishes of the Holy See” and to publish the results and maybe be damned for it.
However, with Pope Francis advocating more openness in the Catholic Church, Archbishop Martin is more in tune with the thinking of this Pope than the rest of his bishop colleagues who, hiding behind the highly-spun fig leaf of “Holy See wishes” refuse to exercise their Episcopal autonomy. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
The Moorings,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.