“The Church’s most loyal servant, but God’s first”
Pope John Paul II made Archbishop Diarmuid Martin the Archbishop of Dublin in the wake of abuse scandals and cover-ups reported in the Irish Catholic Church. Martin had spent his life working as a Vatican diplomat outside of Ireland and could not be accused of being part of the problem. Unlike most Irish and Vatican prelates who are homosexuals and cannot appreciate the deep harm done to abuse victims, the majority of whom are young men and boys, Martin is a heterosexual who can relate to victims as if they were his own sons and daughters.
Unlike Wuerl who covered up for McCarrick and Gregory who covered up for Wuerl in Washington, Martin exposed the cover-ups of his predecessors by turning over some 80,000 documents from his archives to the Murphy Commission. Because Martin’s actions were perceived as an act of disloyalty by Vatican and Irish Church officials, his rising career in the Church came to a screeching halt.
When Francis was elected and he set out to name new cardinals, the last bishop he would ever promote would be Martin. Unlike Francis who claimed, “It [sex abuse] never happened in my diocese,” Martin refused to cover up thousands of abuse cases that occurred in Dublin as they did in Buenos Aires. The only reason that Francis did not dismiss Martin as he did Bishops Daniel Fernández Torres and Joseph Strickland is because of the strong media and political support Martin enjoys to this day in Ireland.
Unlike the Irish Catholic media, including The Furrow and The Irish Catholic which published articles critical of Martin, the Irish secular media canonized Martin for siding with victims over clerical predators and prelates who covered up abuse. Even the Irish Prime Minister is known to respect Martin deeply while having slammed the Vatican for its gross mishandling of sexual abuse. Martin retired in 2020 when he turned 75. Had it not been for the secular media and the Irish politicians, chances are Francis would have dismissed him on some trumped-up charges as he did with Fernández Torres and Strickland.
Unfortunately, Bishop Strickland will receive no support from the US secular or Catholic media with a few exceptions. Like Martin who was shunned by the predominantly gay Irish hierarchy, so too can Strickland expect to receive no support from his brother US bishops, the overwhelming majority of whom are homosexuals.
The Vatican inquiry into Strickland and his subsequent treatment is reminiscent of the trial of Sir Thomas More in which the outcome was evident before the proceedings even began. More lost his life because he refused to condone the King’s divorce and acknowledge him as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Strickland lost his diocese because as a straight bishop, he refused to back the pope’s gay agenda and change Christ’s teachings based on the divine and natural laws.