Some priests in the Dublin archdiocese have begun dropping the name of archbishop Diarmuid Martin from the traditional Eucharistic prayer at mass, reflecting their continuing anger over his handling of the fallout from the Murphy report on clerical child sex abuse.The Sunday Tribune understands the priests in question have instead asked their congregations to pray for the pope. They then "skip" Martin's name by requesting prayers for others such as the clergy, the faithful and the deceased.
This represents a significant break from church tradition, whereby the local bishop or archbishop would ordinarily be prayed for after the pope. Attempts to contact some of the priests involved for comment last week were unsuccessful.
Michael Kelly, deputy editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper – which revealed a meeting of 25 Dublin priests had heard demands for Martin to be confronted over his reaction to the Murphy report – said he was aware of at least four priests who have removed Martin from the Eucharistic prayer.
"It is an extremely unusual development. The tradition is that you pray for the pope first, then the local bishop, mentioning him by name," he said.
"I think it is certainly suggestive of a deep mistrust and anger, at least among some priests, particularly given that it is done publicly in front of the congregation, although some of those gathered may not notice the omission.
"It does indicate that there is a massive communications problem, with some feeling the archbishop has not handled the response to the report properly."
Representatives of abuse survivors who met with Martin following the Irish bishops' meeting with Pope Benedict in Rome earlier this month expressed concern he had his "wings clipped" by the Vatican.
However, while Martin acknowledged there were times when "my views are different to others", he told reporters: "It's a long time since the relations between the archbishop of Dublin and the archbishop of Armagh have been as good."
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