IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
Tue, Sep 9, 2014
The new Catholic primate and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin (52) spoke yesterday of being “overwhelmed, fearful at what lies ahead but trusting in God I’ll be helped along and with people’s prayers.” At the same time he was “looking forward to it. It’ll be quite an adventure”.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday he said his biggest challenge would be “to get the message of the gospel to people whose lives are so busy and flustered with financial challenges, family difficulties, personal problems, to help them find that sacred space where they can feel the presence of God; find that still voice within.”
Agreeing the situation was difficult for the Church in Ireland, he commented that “the gospel has had to be presented in so many difficult environments down the centuries.” The Irish Church “of the 1940s and 1950s is gone and we would not want that back. It was very much tarnished gold.”
In this “increasingly secular world many have drifted away from regular practice but still sought support at particular moments in life.” For him “personally, there could be no more exiting time to be a priest or bishop.”
Commentary
A matter he found difficult in commentary following his appointment as Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh was that, where the Church in Ireland was concerned, some described it was ‘ drawing of a line’ where the clerical abuse issue was concerned.
There was no such “drawing of a line” on abuse survivors, he said, for many of whom it was a lifelong matter, as was also the case with those who suffered trauma during the Northern Ireland Troubles. The protection of children could only be assured through “vigilance” and people “remaining on high alert” whether in the church or society at large.
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