The Irish Times `papal talks' story unfounded

Tag: ireland

By Garry O'Sullivan Editor

It seemed like an amazing scoop for The Irish Times newspaper last week when it was able to reveal that not only was Dublin's Archbishop Martin still in favour with the Pope but that he had recently had 'exhaustive discussions' with the Pope who backed him fully on his strategy in Dublin.

The report was made from Rimini in Italy where Archbishop Martin was giving a speech to a gathering of Communion and Liberation members.

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Those back in Ireland who speculated that Archbishop Martin might have been embarrassed by the Vatican decision not to accept the resignations of his two auxiliary bishops were told by The Irish Times sources that they were out of touch with what was really going on in Italy and the Vatican.

The problem with this is that Archbishop Martin did not meet the Pope recently when he was in Italy. Nor did he have a discussion with him. In fact, the Pope has not met Archbishop Martin or Cardinal Brady since he met all the Irish bishops last February nor has the Pope had any discussions with the Archbishop since then. In response to questions from this paper, a spokeswoman for the Archbishop of Dublin confirmed this saying that ''The archbishop hasn't had any discussions with the Pope since the bishop's meeting last February.''

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/...e/2010/09/