Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said the expected visit of Pope Francis next year will be a “different style and scale” to the outing of St. John Paul II in 1979.
Speaking after celebrating Mass at Knock, Ireland, for the launch of World Meeting of Families 2018, Archbishop Martin noted, “When Pope John Paul came to Ireland he was 60; when Pope Francis comes, he will be over 80.”
In an interview with the Irish Independent, Martin also said Francis “will come to a very different Ireland than Pope John Paul.”
How true that is and sadly so.
In an interview with the Irish Independent, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin touched on the issue of the children of Priests, after it was revealed the Irish Bishops had produced a set of guidelines to help deal with the reality.
He admitted some of the women who had children by Priests had “not been treated properly” by Church authorities, and said Priests had the same responsibilities to their children as any other father.
“Pope Francis himself has said that the natural right of a child to know his father is more important than the positive law of celibacy,” Archbishop Martin told the newspaper.
It is not known how many people in Ireland were fathered by clergy, but The Guardian in 2010 estimated the number for both Great Britain and Ireland to be one thousand.
So, get ready America, Australia, Europe, Central and South America: the latest and perhaps even more devastating scandal to rock the Church and the Priesthood is ready to explode upon the scene.
Prepare yourselves for the next steady diet of horror stories about women victims and their children who were abandoned by their Priest-lovers and fathers.
Prepare yourselves for the number of “spokespersons” representing local ordinaries who will offer apology and apology.
Prepare yourselves for new offices and agencies, new hot line numbers to call, new Guidelines and Programs to protect women from predator Priests.
Prepare yourselves for the multitude of press conferences and press releases from the Episcopal Conferences around the world as they publicly wring the hands and decry their ignorance of any such happenings in their respective countries.
And, of course, prepare yourselves (especially in the USA) for the mountain of legal suits which will be filed in courts across the country demanding monetary compensation for the suffering and grief of so many victims.
Archbishop Martin has taken the wraps off what has always been a blemish on the Church, a scandal which -- like that of the homosexual abuse of adolescent boys by Catholic Clergy -- they succeeded in covering up for decades but which, in the end, has so wounded the credibility and dignity of the Catholic Faith.
Once the secular press get hold of this scandal, it’s anyone’s guess how long it will take for the Church to recover, if ever.
Lord, we need Your help so badly. Holy Spirit, come to the aid of Your wounded and suffering Church. Give us Your insight, Your Wisdom, Your Compassion and the virtue of Your Justice in responding to what promises to be very hurtful to the unity and sanctity of Your Church.
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