In March, 60 Minutes ran a story on the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, and the response to the sex abuse crisis in Ireland. On August 19, 60 Minutes is running the story again. It is a slow news time of the year, but I think the story is worth seeing again.
The apostle of change for good in the Church in Ireland today is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, 66, the archbishop of Dublin. His Grace has a very tough job: healing the Church in Ireland following the devastating reality of sex abuse of children by the Catholic clergy. He acts according to his conscience and faith in Christ to open the doors to speaking about such heinous things; none of other bishops in Ireland have done so.
The Catholic Church in Ireland is facing what we in the USA continue to face and the Church in parts of the world also face or will face: sin. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, is working overtime to renew himself and the Church he leads to a deeper contrition and to a renewed sense of mission as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Like Saint John the Baptist, Archbishop Martin tells us clearly that self-centeredness and arrogance are not legitimate virtues for Catholics to allow to dwell in the heart and in the way one acts. What the Archbishop says about his Church can be said of us personally, and the Church in the USA. Time to change!!!! As the Baptist says, “I must decrease and He –Jesus– must increase.
The Gospel of this morning’s
Mass recalls that great figure: John the Baptist. John’s task was to announce
the coming of Jesus. He was called to reawaken a sense of expectation among a
people that had grown tired and distant from God. He was called to bring
renewal to institutional expressions of religion which, at the time, had so
often become fossilised into mere formulae or external ritual. John’s work was
extraordinary. He attracted thousands to come out into the desert to see
him. He wrought conversion on a vast scale.
John was a man who stood out.
His strange dress – the wild camel hair and the leather girdle – was not chosen
as a publicity gimmick or a trademark. His message was one that spoke of
rising above conventional ways of thinking, conventional expectations and
attitudes. He shunned the external amenities of a comfortable life
because he wanted to show his absolute dependence on God. His detachment
from life’s comforts gave him the freedom to truly recognise the message of
Jesus.
The figure of John serves as a warning to us today, to all believers, to
the Church and to Church organizations of every age of our need to draw our
strength from Christ alone, rather than from identifying with the cultural
patterns and fashions of the day, which in any case come and go.