In a warm tribute in his homily at a Mass in thanksgiving for the priesthood at the Church of the Holy Child in Dublin’s Larkhill / Whitehall / Santry parish, the Archbishop said that if any group has faced and, “existentially lived through the crisis that the Church is experiencing in Ireland, and have led the path to turning the corner of renewal, it is priests.”
He also acknowledged that being a priest today is following a lonely and unsettling furrow, but said the vast majority of priests know that they have the human and spiritual resources to face those realities.
“Our Church needs priests; our Church needs holy priests; our Church needs priests whose lives are deeply rooted in the word of God and in prayer; our Church needs priests who find fulfilment in what is at the heart of their ministry; our priests need to be encouraged to find new ways of priestly fraternity," Archbishop Martin implored.
The prayerful support of the entire believing community is vital to priests’ identity and ministry he said, and added that priests need to know just how much their ministry is vital to the lives of those they are called to serve.
Speaking after the Mass, Archbishop Martin said he is willing to meet with the Association of Catholic Priests but he questions the Association’s willingness to engage with him.
“I’ve said that I am more than willing to meet with a representative group of priests in Dublin from the Association of Catholic Priests. I have made that offer but I haven’t received a reply,” he said.
The Archbishop said that though he has indicated his openness to meeting, the ACP leadership’s reply had been, “ambivalent.”
He said, “I’ve had dialogue with all sorts of organisations and it is rarely that I meet with such ambivalence to an open offer – unconditional - from me.”
He also ruled out the call by ACP spokesman, Fr Brendan Hoban, for the introduction of viri probati to the priesthood.
“For the moment, what we have to do is find worthy candidates who are able to live as celibate priests as is the tradition in the Latin rite. I believe that there are candidates there but we are not always necessarily reaching them.”
He added, “Certainly any type of polemics around priesthood does not encourage people to enter the priesthood.”
During the ceremony at the Church of the Holy Child, Archbishop Martin paid tribute to the work of the members of St Joseph’s Young Priests' Society, for their, “continuous prayerful and practical support for vocations and for the ministry of priests.”
At the conclusion of the Mass, he presented a papal Bene Merenti medal to Maureen Keogh, saying, “We thank God for her work, alongside so many other men and women, who gratefully recognise, respect and sustain the unique ministry of priest in today’s world.”