Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who labored to rebuild the Catholic Church’s credibility in Eire after it was shattered by many years of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up
ROME — Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who labored to rebuild the Roman Catholic Church’s credibility in Eire after it was shattered by many years of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up.
Martin turned 75 earlier this 12 months, the obligatory retirement age for bishops. Francis named Bishop Dermot Farrell, 66, the pinnacle of the Ossory diocese in jap Eire, as Martin’s substitute.
Deeply Catholic Eire has had one of many world’s worst data of clergy intercourse abuse, crimes that have been revealed to its 4.8 million folks over the previous decade by a sequence of government-mandated inquiries. The critiques concluded that hundreds of kids have been raped and molested by clergymen or bodily abused in church-run colleges whereas bishops labored to guard the predators and the Irish church’s status.
Martin, who was named archbishop of Dublin in 2004, labored to vary that tradition and to rebuild the church, forcefully talking out on behalf of victims.
“On this he led by instance, confronting the previous, partaking in common outreach to survivors and their households, and modelling finest follow in transparency and accountability – thereby setting the template for different Church leaders each right here, and the world over,” Archbishop Eamon Martin, president of the Irish bishops’ convention, stated.
Farrell, the brand new Dublin archbishop, has gained plaudits for his pastoral and administrative efforts since being named by Francis to guide the Ossory diocese in 2018. In an opinion piece Tuesday within the unbiased Irish Catholic weekly, non secular affairs commentator Michael Kelly wrote that Farrell was the appropriate man to hold on from Martin.
“He’s a person of big vitality, unafraid of embracing reform and new methods of doing issues,” Kelly wrote.