Archbishop Diarmuid Martin questions priestly training

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Former archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin introducing his music preferences on the Brendan O’Connor Show on St Patrick’s Day spoke about his early days in Clonliffe College in the 1960s.

 

He told the story about how when they headed out to study at UCD they were told by their dean that they were not to talk to their former schoolmates, whom they would meet at university.

He realised how mad that instruction was, and never kept the rule. Any time I have heard the former archbishop on radio or television I’ve been impressed with him. Diarmuid also spoke about the isolation of those seminary years and how the world had changed from 1962 to 1969 when he was ordained a priest. He realised full well men who were locked away for seven years were not capable of leading the people in their faith.

 

He set me thinking about priesthood.

 

Maybe there is no difference between how the machinery of priesthood works to that in any other profession, business or industry. There are careerists and sleeveens in every walk of life. Great people and crazy people too.

I wonder who that dean was, whom Diarmuid Martin mentioned? Where did he go after his job in Clonliffe? Did he end up a bishop?

It’s generally accepted that the papal nuncio, the Holy See’s ambassador to a country, has a large say in the appointment of bishops. And maybe particularly so in Ireland. In some countries governments play a role in the appointment of bishops, not so in Ireland. It is all done in great secrecy, which looks and sounds dangerous and unhealthy.

A former papal nuncio to Ireland, Gaetano Alibrandi was 20 years here in the job between 1969 and 1989. His tenure was exceptional and he left Ireland under some sort of financial cloud.

In his 20 years he had a major say in the appointment of bishops. In the world of diplomatic missions isn’t it odd that an ambassador has such a say in the internal workings of another state?

If a bishop decides to behave as a dictator he has a fair chance of getting away with it for long enough to do great damage to a diocese.

Diarmuid Martin said on the Brendan O’Connor Show, priests in the 1960s were hopelessly prepared for the world they were sent out to work in. Is the organisational church in any better state today in Ireland?

I can’t help believe that clericalism is intertwined with sycophancy and it weaves its way right down from the top to the local priest on the ground. And that’s never healthy.

Brendan O’Connor asked Diarmuid Martin was priestly training different now. Diarmuid replied: ‘yes and no’. They are not my words but the exact words of the former Catholic archbishop of Dublin.

Pope Francis is trying to change things. But what are his chances? How long more has he got?

It’s well there’s the Holy Spirit.