ANALYSIS:The esteem in which Diarmuid Martin is held in Italy was clear in the prolonged applause
IF ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin’s wings have really been clipped by the Holy See, then he has been performing a series of minor miracles in Rimini this week, flying ever higher.
Vatican insiders and exponents of the influential Catholic lay group, Communione E Liberazione, whose annual gathering has been attended by both Archbishop Martin and President McAleese this week, have expressed incredulity at the “Irish” notion that the archbishop of Dublin does not have the full, unqualified support of Pope Benedict XVI.
Whilst many in Ireland chose to see the “non-resignation” of Dublin auxiliary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field last week as a setback for Dr Martin, Vatican insiders have discounted that line of media speculation.
Sources in the Holy See have confirmed that Archbishop Martin has recently had exhaustive discussions on the sex abuse crisis with Pope Benedict, who remains in complete agreement with the manner in which Dr Martin has confronted the Irish church’s tortured and long-running trauma.
While there has been understandable concern among the Irish faithful that the resignations of the two auxiliaries mentioned in the Murphy report were in effect rejected by Pope Benedict, church observers this week have emphasised that this “reinstatement” in no way represents a vote of no confidence in Archbishop Martin.
On the contrary, Vatican sources point to the fact that both auxiliaries are to be assigned to new, but as yet undefined, roles.
Last Sunday, addressing a 10,000-strong crowd here in Rimini, President McAleese broke off from her analysis of the Northern conflict to offer her own, unequivocal endorsement of Archbishop Martin, calling him a “wonderful” archbishop who is doing an “amazing job”.
No one who witnessed the huge round of applause generated by that remark to an almost exclusively Italian audience, and one that is especially well informed on Vatican affairs, could have much doubt about Archbishop Martin’s high standing and authority, on this side of the Alps at least.
That public expression of respect was repeated yesterday when the archbishop addressed the gathering on the subject of Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Introduced as someone who had “paid in person” for his forthright stand on the sex abuse issue, Dr Martin received an extended standing ovation.
The fact, too, that he has been a regular speaker at one of the largest Catholic gatherings in the western world (up to one million people are expected to attend this week’s six-day meeting) makes its own point.
As so often in analysis of Catholic Church affairs, differences of interpretation may well be linked to sociolinguistic misunderstandings.
The Holy See remains a very Italian organisation and one only passingly concerned with the “universal” nature of its vocation.
To understand the bureaucratic workings and decision-making processes of the Holy See, one must first understand the complex mindset of the average, high-ranking, 19th century Vatican state functionary.
Furthermore, an exhaustive understanding of Italian is not so much helpful as essential. Not every Irish commentator on church affairs ticks all these very particolareboxes.
Not for nothing, Archbishop Martin addressed the Rimini faithful yesterday in Italian, the lingua franca of Vatican affairs, making his text available only in Italian. Those who need to hear what he had to say will have listened closely.
In particular, his observation that many Irish Catholics remain “theological illiterates”, notwithstanding up to 15 years of religious teaching, will have touched a major chord with Pope Benedict, someone who believes strongly in the need to “re-evangelise” western Europe.
On this, and on many other issues, Archbishop Martin and Pope Benedict see eye to eye, despite what the archbishop’s Irish critics might say.
Not for nothing, Dr Martin chose to speak this week about Cardinal Newman, a figure much admired by Pope Benedict, who next month, of course, travels to Britain to preside personally over his beatification.