The new Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin (51) said last Sunday his motto would be
Cantate Domino canticum novum
(Sing a new song to the Lord).
It “suggests ‘renewal’. It
calls on us to seek fresh ways of presenting the message of the gospel.”
He recalled how when his appointment was
announced last January, he had said then “we live in a time of change,
challenge and opportunity, and I suggested that this is a good time, as
the psalms say, to ‘sing a new song to the Lord’.”
As coadjutor in Armagh, Dr Martin has an automatic right to succeed Cardinal Seán Brady as archbishop of Armagh.
Cardinal Brady is entitled to remain on as
archbishop of Armagh until August 2014 when he reaches 75 and must then
submit a letter of resignation to the Vatican.
It is thought likely he
will stand down before then.
He is a cardinal for life with voting
rights at a conclave until August 2019, when he will be 80.
In his homily at St Patrick’s Cathedral,
Dr Brady noted how the words of Archbishop Martin’s motto
evoked “the memory of another shepherd. King David was the young
shepherd, called by God, to become the leader of his people through some
of the most difficult spiritual, economic and political times in
Israel’s history.”
Archbishop Martin, in his various roles to date, had
“generously and tirelessly placed your great gifts of leadership and
administration at the service of the Gospel and the people to whom you
were sent . . . Today the Lord calls you to a new place and different
pasture,” he said.