Archbishop Diarmuid Martin: ‘We’ve to be careful to ensure we never slip back’

IRELAND
Irish Times

January 29, 2021

By Patsy McGarry

Interview: ‘My worst day came early on, when I met the parents of a victim. That shattered me’

Pope Francis once quietly approached the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, in the Vatican guesthouse, the Santa Marta, at the end of an early morning Mass.

“I often think of you, you got a very difficult chalice. I’m sure there are nights you go to bed and you say to yourself why did I not stay in Geneva?” he told the Dubliner.

During his 17 years at the helm in Dublin, it is a question that Martin, who steps down finally as archbishop next week, could have been forgiven for asking himself, and more than once.

He was appointed coadjutor archbishop in 2003, becoming archbishop the following year at a time when the Catholic Church in Ireland was reeling in the face of a swathe of allegations of clerical child abuse.

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