Diarmuid Martin Claims Irish Catholicism at ‘Breaking Point’
Irish Catholicism is at “breaking point” over the child sex abuse scandals involving the clergy, the leader of Ireland’s largest Catholic diocese will say on Sunday.
The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, will also warn that the paedophile priest controversy is far from over for the Irish church.
In a frank admission of the church’s failings on American primetime TV , Martin will say: “There’s a real danger today of people saying: ‘the child abuse scandal is over, let’s bury it, let’s move on’.
“It isn’t over. Child protection and the protection of children is something which will go on for the rest of our lives and into the future because the problems are there.”
Regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers in the Irish Catholic church, Martin will appear on CBS’s top current affairs show 60 Minutes. He is one of the most senior Catholics to openly criticise the way the hierarchy has handled the abuse allegations.
The head of Dublin’s Catholics will tell the programme that “now is not the time to forget” and that the “problems are still there” when it comes to the scandals that have rocked the church and undermined its political power and authority in the Irish Republic.