IRELAND
Time Europe Magazine
Sunday, Apr. 30, 2006
It's not your father's Irish Catholicism. Attendance at mass is down, birth control is commonplace, and not one new priest was ordained last year in the Dublin archdiocese — which estimates that more than 100 of its priests since 1940, about 4% of the total, have abused children. Diarmuid Martin, a Vatican diplomat who speaks five languages, was made Dublin's Archbishop in 2004 and has sought to clean up and revitalize the church. He spoke with Time's J.F.O. McAllister. ...
How important have the abuse scandals been in driving people away?
People's confidence in the church has suffered greatly.
Do you think you have the problem under control?
You would be very foolish to say you know everything because pedophiles are extremely devious and deliberate in covering their tracks. All I can say is that we are working to establish structures that will reduce the possibility that any church employee can do that.