Greg Daly
Photo: CNS Decisions about Ireland’s dioceses must be driven by discipleship, Archbishop Eamon Martin tells Greg Daly
It was inevitable that questions would be asked about the future of the Diocese of Dromore when, just weeks after a new auxiliary bishop was announced for the Archdiocese of Armagh, Bishop Philip Boyce stepped down as Dromore’s diocesan administrator this April, being succeeded by Armagh’s Archbishop Eamon Martin. It looked as if the two northern dioceses were being merged, if not formally at least in practice.
“In fact on the day that I went up there, the first day, that was all the speculation in Dromore and our own diocese,” Archbishop Eamon tells The Irish Catholic. “Does this mean that Armagh and Dromore are now being amalgamated? And I can understand that question.”
Controversy
It’s important, he cautions, to understand how quickly decisions had needed to be taken around Dromore when Bishop John McAreavey announced his resignation – not even waiting for the Pope to accept it – in March 2018, against the background of controversy concerning his knowledge of allegations of abuse made against the late Fr Malachy Finnegan.
“McAreavey resigned very suddenly, I think taking everybody by surprise,” Dr Martin says, explaining that it was immediately recognised in Rome that the diocese needed to be calmed in the face of the storm around the bishop’s resignation.
“I think they were very anxious because of the Chrism Mass coming up, they wanted to give stability, and they asked Bishop Philip to go in,” he says. “It was after that that they began their consultation as they always do in the case of a vacant see – they begin to consult. And the very first round of consultation in any diocese that’s vacant is a very general one which they send out to the bishops, to a range of priests, and to a range of lay people in the diocese. They basically ask ‘what are the needs of the diocese?’”
It became clear, the archbishop continues, that the consultation would not be a speedy affair.
“The situation in Dromore would be that Bishop Philip had been I think waiting a few years in Raphoe before his retirement was accepted – he’s an old man, he’ll be 80 in a couple of months time – and I think that everyone accepted that it wasn’t a good long-term solution to have Bishop Philip staying there in the role of that, especially given that some of these diocesan consultations now are taking several years,” he says.
Under the circumstances, he explains, it made sense to ask him, as metropolitan of Ireland’s northern episcopal province, to oversee the diocese.
“In situations around the world where the bishop resigns suddenly, it’s quite normal to ask the metropolitan of the province if he would oversee the diocese in the meantime, though I think in Dromore’s situation there’s probably a little but more to it than that,” he says, describing the diocese as being in “a lot of need” and how he has been consulting closely with diocesan clergy over the past two months.
“Essentially what I’ve been asked to do is to go there and assist the diocese in trying to get back on its feet in some ways,” he says. “As you know, the horrific sequence of allegations that have emerged there mean that it’s an extremely difficult situation to send in any new bishop, any new man without experience to go in there and put that right.”
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Nobody expects the task of steadying the ship to be a speedy one, he says, anticipating several years at the helm.
“Essentially what they’ve done is asked me to go in there and oversee the diocese for a number of years,” he says. “I said to the priests in Dromore, listen, this is not just a case of me holding the fort here for a few more months, because if that was the case I imagine they probably would have asked Bishop Philip to stay on. I think they believe that now at least in the short term – short to medium term – that I will be in the diocese.”
It’s in this context that the announcement of an auxiliary bishop for Armagh makes most sense. Dr Martin says he submitted a request for an auxiliary early last year, before Bishop McAreavey’s resignation, with Armagh having typically had an auxiliary bishop since the middle of the last century. Given how full the archbishop’s schedule tends to be – as Primate of All-Ireland and President of the bishops’ conference he has a huge range of national roles – it was understandable that he should have sought help in his pastoral ministry in Armagh.
Adding oversight of Dromore to his portfolio only made this need more pressing, he adds.
“When they did ask me to undertake the role in Dromore, I said that would be nearly impossible for me to do without an auxiliary bishop in Armagh, so they granted me that quite quickly and I think that was indeed an acknowledgement of the extra work that I was being asked to do,” he says.
Not that Fr Michael Router – or Bishop Michael Router as he shall become next month – should be understood as a de facto Bishop of Dromore.
“Some people might think the auxiliary bishop will go into Newry and look after Dromore, but that is not the case,” he says. “It’s my intention, and I have already begun the work in Dromore, and I will be the apostolic administrator of Dromore. Of course, my assistant bishop can assist me in any duties like Confirmations or special Masses that I would ask him to assist me with.”
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With the archbishop looking ahead to several years overseeing Dromore, which remains a formally vacant see, it is hard to shake off the suspicion that this is a step towards the amalgamation of Dromore – one of Ireland’s smallest dioceses – with Armagh.
“I said to the priests that I understand all the speculation: everybody understands that, Dromore is a small diocese, and I suppose in the longer term the future of these smaller dioceses is something that we really need to think seriously about,” Dr Martin concedes, before clarifying that he has not been asked to work towards a diocesan merger.
“The only thing is that at the moment I have not been asked by the Holy See to move towards amalgamation of Dromore,” he says. “Therefore what I am doing is I am seeking to establish in Dromore all of the governance arrangements from Dromore for Dromore. In fact, I don’t do any Dromore business here in Armagh, nor do I do any Armagh business in Dromore,” he continues, stressing that at the moment his priority is to help Dromore get back on its feet.
That “at the moment” seems important, but Dr Martin says while it is obvious that the long-term future of Ireland’s smallest dioceses – Dromore, Clonfert, Achonry, and Killala in particular – needs serious consideration, he is currently “not aware of any grand plan for the reorganisation of dioceses in Ireland”.
Such a reorganisation was mooted a few years ago, following a request from the Congregation of Bishops in Rome, he says.
“When they came to the Irish bishops six or seven years ago, my understanding is that the recommendation was that at that time because of the huge focus in Ireland on child safeguarding the bishops were reluctant to give any sense that the reorganisation of dioceses was in response to the scandals,” he says, “so their recommendation was that each time a diocese becomes vacant, that the question is asked: ‘what about the longer-term future of this diocese?’”
Acknowledging that it would be reasonable to ask that question of Dromore, Dr Martin says he has not initiated that process. “I actually said to the priests, look, I’m going to take a full year just to reform a council of priests, reform your diocesan governance structures, so that then we can properly and synodally consult with the people and the priests and take a very decent look over a period of time at the future of the diocese.”
To me the real appetite for a national synod would be to enable the questions about handing on the Faith”
Whatever happens, he says, “it’s obvious that consideration needs to be given to the future of the smaller dioceses in Ireland”.
“There’s no doubt about that,” he continues, “and I would imagine that in the consultation that the Holy See is undertaking, for example, that they’re writing out to people in Achonry or Clonfert, their questions include not just ‘who do you think would be a good bishop?’ but also ‘what do you consider to be the most pressing need for the diocese at this time?’”
It’s important to remember, he stresses, that dioceses aren’t simply administrative units. “A diocese is a portion of the people of God in communion with a bishop,” he says, turning to how this understanding, and the Church’s missionary character, needs to define any changes to how the Church in Ireland is organised.
“I think the question that I would be asking in all of this – and I am indeed asking this question because I think it’s very important for the Church in Ireland now to start very much asking these questions – is: what is the optimum size of a diocese, or conditions within a diocese which will maximise mission and making disciples? Because ultimately that’s what we’re about. The question there would have to be how are we going to hand on the Faith.”
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Given how widely Irish dioceses vary in size – there are fewer than 40,000 Catholics in each of Achonry, Clonfert and Killala, while the Archdiocese of Dublin is home to over a million baptised Catholics – questions about optimum sizes for mission could prove contentious.
“I ask that question for example, what is the optimum size for mission: in other words, what is too small to provide the best possible provisions for handing on the Faith? But equally – this could be a controversial thing – what is too big? So, for example, are there some dioceses in Ireland too big to have that portion of the people of God in communion with their bishop and in communion with Rome?
“I actually wonder myself about the creation of huge dioceses which become really like bureaucracies or big structures, rather than in touch with people on the ground,” he muses, reflecting on how the great Italian Church reformer St Charles Borromeo had said that the proper pastoral care of even one soul is diocese enough for any bishop. “It’s a beautiful quotation in this context: if you are doing mission properly, then the size of the diocese is a secondary question,” Dr Martin says.
The key thing, he says, is focusing on the Church’s mission.
“That may not necessarily be an administrative question or a bureaucratic question about a curia,” Dr Martin says. “It’s more likely to be: are we unleashing the roles, for example, of our lay faithful? Are we calling our young people to play their part in the mission of the Church? What are we doing to maximise the proclamation of the Gospel? What are we doing to assist with catechesis?
“These are questions that are very much to do with the way we do things as much as the structural questions. I think it would be a mistake for Ireland to think that we can structure our way out of the particular challenges that we have in the Church at the moment,” he continues. “Even within a diocese, we say ‘let’s amalgamate all the parishes’, or ‘let’s cluster the parishes’ – where that has worked best is where the lay faithful have been engaged, where they understand what’s being asked, and the decision is being taken synodally.”
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Synodally, again, seems to be a guiding principle here. “I would be disappointed if the reorganisation of dioceses in Ireland took place at a boardroom table in Rome. I think that it needs to begin on the ground and move from the ground up,” he says.
“My situation in Dromore provides an opportunity to look at this question seriously with Dromore, and I think whatever happens in Clonfert now, I hope that even if a new bishop is put in to Achonry, that immediately the consultation on the ground with the parish pastoral councils, with the people of God in the dioceses, with the priests in the dioceses, immediately begins about the future,” he says.
Not that it’s just the smallest dioceses that need to face this reality, he adds. With reduced numbers of clergy, even his own Armagh will soon need to grapple with how it can fulfil its mission, he says, adding that it’s important that these issues be examined together.
“It may mean that the change that you’re talking about here is not instant, but it is staring us in the face, and it’s something that we need to be serious about over, I would imagine, the next five to 10 years,” he says. “But I would like it to be a process that engages both priests and laity, pastoral areas, team ministry, all of them, and I think that’s happening in Dromore, people are saying can we manage as a diocese on our own? Do we need to look to being part of a bigger unit?”
Making the Irish Church fit for mission going forward is a matter of evolution not revolution, he says, noting that even historically the country’s dioceses did not happen overnight: although diocesan boundaries were laid down in the 12th Century, the great synods of Cashel, Rathbreasail and Kells in many ways simply recognised existing realities, and even then dioceses merged and were created over the centuries.
“So that evolution can be gradual or it can be sudden, but I do think that at the moment there’s possibly a good reason to bring an issue like this, certainly within the next 10 years or so, to a national discussion,” the primate says, saying that a national synod would be a good way of doing this.
“Why not? I would be absolutely in favour for us moving towards a national synod,” he says. “I would be a bit iffy about holding a national synod that was going to concentrate on diocesan structures, because to me the real appetite for a national synod would be to enable the questions about handing on the Faith. They’re all related questions.”
Personally sceptical of the merits of redrawing diocesan boundaries, given their historical identities and connections with local saints, Dr Martin says: “I would be a wee bit frightened about carving it up as though we were doing local authority boundaries, though it is interesting that if you take somewhere like Dublin, from the point of view of the civil authorities, Dublin has now been effectively divided into four, so take that question that I asked earlier: what’s the optimum size?”
With reduced numbers of clergy, even his own Armagh will soon need to grapple with how it can fulfil its mission, he says”
It’s a question that’s been raised in Italy, he says, where despite St John Paul’s suppression of 101 dioceses in 1986, there are still over 200 dioceses even now, with the Congregation for Bishops taking the view that dioceses of under 100,000 inhabitants are unsustainable.
The key point, the archbishop says, is to focus on what dioceses are for. “In terms of evangelisation and all of that, whether or not Armagh and Dromore are one diocese or two dioceses I don’t think is going to make a huge difference on the ground unless the decision was taken in order to enable mission.”
Maintaining that one way or another change should be motivated from the ground up, Dr Martin says it might not take too much to unlock the unrealised potential of the Irish Church.
“The Church does move slowly, and I think if you were to take a look at Ireland I think you could probably, without too much massive change, effect some very important and significant developments,” he says. “That would be my thinking – I’m very open to it.”