Fallout from Rome summit
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WHAT a loyal servant of the Church Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is. His valiant attempt to salvage some modicum of dignity from what could crudely be described as a public relations disaster for Pope Benedict and the institution of the Catholic Church almost succeeded.
But not entirely.
If the Irish bishops went to Rome for no other purpose than to brief the Pope so that he can draft a letter to the Catholics of Ireland, that should have been clearly stated before all the pomp and pageantry in the Apostolic Palace created the impression that something positive was going to come of it for the victims of priestly child abuse.
The outcome did not reflect the original understanding that 24 of the country's leading clerics had been summoned to the Vatican to answer for the mishandling of child abuse and the evil behaviour revealed in the Ryan report on state-run institutions, and the Murphy report on cover-ups in the Dublin diocese.
In particular, there was no public acknowledgement of, or apology for, the criminal behaviour of senior churchmen in moving paedophiles from place to place to protect them.
Yesterday, however, Dr Martin defended the Pope's approach and promised that "other things" will happen.
If the other things include a credible apology and a meeting between Pope Benedict and Irish victims of abuse, the Pope should simply say so. This would spare his bishops some embarrassment and tell the victims that they are no longer being regarded as inconveniences rather than people.
