Sunday, April 4, 2010

Archbishop of Canterbury: Irish Catholic church has lost all credibility



From The London Guardian-
Church leaders in Ireland have condemned the archbishop of Canterbury after he said the country's Catholic church has lost "all credibility" because of its poor handling of the scandal of paedophile priests. Dr Rowan Williams said the child sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the Catholic church had been a "colossal trauma" for Ireland in particular.

But a Catholic archbishop and senior Anglican clergy in Ireland rebuked Williams over his comments, contending they were unhelpful and discouraging. In an interview to be broadcast on Monday, Williams said: "I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who was saying that it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now. "And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society suddenly losing all credibility – that's not just a problem for the church, it is a problem for everybody in Ireland." Williams's remarks were condemned by one of the most senior Catholics in Ireland, the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.

"Those working for renewal in the Catholic church in Ireland did not need this comment on this Easter weekend and do not deserve it," he said.
The comments are also likely to fuel the controversy surrounding the pope's visit to Britain in September, when he is expected to talk about moral standards and renew his attack on Britain's equality laws.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/03/archbishop-canterbury-ireland-catholic-credibility

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