THE Pope and the heads of the Irish Church did not discuss directly the resignations of any of the bishops during their meeting in Rome, according to Cardinal Séan Brady.Instead they concentrated on the accountability and credibility of the bishops, and how to re-establish that, the Irish Primate said.
It will be up to individual bishops themselves to take responsibility for their actions, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin indicated, adding that they were doing this in public which was a new thing in the church in Ireland.
Rather than firing bishops, the emphasis will be on reorganising the church and the details of this will be in a Pastoral Letter from the Pope to the Irish people early in the New Year.
The Pastoral Letter – reserved usually for crisis situations – would begin a programme of renewing the church and changes would include having more lay people involved in parishes, he said.
The Archbishop said that some of the problems emerging from the Murphy Report are to do with what he called the climate in the church.
"We need renewal… evangelisation of parish communities, getting more lay people involved in parishes – all of these things have to be taken into consideration so that we can go forward with a church that is confident in itself, that has the confidence of its people."
The Archbishop said a change of culture in the church was already actually happening. "Things are very different from how they were in the past," he added.
Asked if the reorganisation would involve fewer dioceses and bishops being asked to leave, Archbishop Martin said, "Less dioceses – all these things are open – we did not go into that".
With 26 dioceses, Ireland has about double that of countries with a similar Catholic population.
Archbishop Martin said that the problem was that the percentage of paedophiles in any society remains constant.
"The Church has to ensure that paedophiles do not drift into our system either as priests or in any other occupation."
He added that the issue of the number of management involved in covering up paedophile activity will be addressed.
Cardinal Brady said the Church also plans what he referred to as a "celebration of lament and repentance involving first of all us bishops and priests", but added that the Vatican has yet to sign off on this.
Limerick Bishop Donal Murray, who was heavily criticised when as auxiliary Bishop in Dublin oversaw at least 13 cases of clerical child abuse, remained in Rome awaiting orders from the Pope, his spokesperson has said.
Archbishop Martin said that he has not yet seen responses from the bishops named in the Murphy report as he has been out of the country but he will study them when he returns to Dublin.
He added that he wrote to retired Bishop Dermot O’Mahony asking him not to confirm any children next year, distance himself from the International Pilgrimage Trust, which he has done, and not to take part in any diocesan administration.
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