Diarmuid Martin

Diarmuid Martin (born 8 April 1945) is an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland from 2004 to 2020.

He entered Clonliffe seven days before the opening of the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 1962.

He was ordained a priest on 25 May 1969 by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.

Martin is also an alumnus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum where he pursued further studies.

His brother, Seamus Martin, was the International Editor of The Irish Times newspaper.

From 1976 to 2003 he held a variety of positions in the Roman Curia and in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, representing the Holy See at the United Nations in Geneva and many international conferences.

In 1976, Martin entered the service of the Holy See, working for the Pontifical Council for the Family.

He later worked on the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was appointed Under Secretary in 1986 and Secretary in 1994.

During the 1990s, Martin represented the Holy See at major United Nations International Conferences, spoke about the Church's teachings on social matters at a variety of Episcopal Conferences, and was a member of various Vatican Offices, including the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

Also, he was involved in discussions between the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church as well as the World Faiths Development Dialogue.

He represented the views of the Holy See to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where he advocated for debt relief for less developed countries.

He became a bishop in 1999 and an archbishop in 2001.

Diarmuid Martin was raised and educated in Dublin, at the Oblate school in Inchicore, the De La Salle School situated on the Ballyfermot Road in Ballyfermot, and Marian College, Ballsbridge.

He went to University College Dublin, where he studied philosophy, and then went to the Dublin Diocese's seminary at Holy Cross College (Dublin), where he studied theology.

On 6 January 1999 he was consecrated titular Bishop of Glendalough by Pope John Paul II.

On 17 January 2001, he was appointed titular Archbishop of the same see when he was appointed the Holy See's Permanent Observer at the United Nations Office at Geneva and other Specialised Agencies there, including the World Trade Organization.

In this capacity, he represented the Holy See at various UN conferences, including the International Conference on Population and Development.

He led the delegations of the Holy See to the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (Doha, 2001), the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Martin was appointed Coadjutor to Cardinal Desmond Connell on 3 May 2003 and was installed on 30 August.

On 26 April 2004, following the acceptance of Cardinal Connell's resignation by Pope John Paul II, Martin automatically succeeded him as Archbishop of Dublin.

Martin told the Irish Independent in 2004 that "I recognise that there are many different kinds of caring relationships and these often create dependencies for those involved. The State may feel in justice that the rights of people in these relationships need to be protected."

He emphasised he was not thinking mainly of homosexual relationships, but rather of caring, dependent relationships in general.

At the same time, he said, he did not exclude homosexual relationships.

Martin said: "I have a wide range of relationships in mind. I do not exclude gay relationships but my main concern is with all caring relationships where dependencies have come into being."

In 2005 Martin said that being gay should not prevent a man becoming a Catholic priest.

He said: "You don't write off a candidate for the priesthood simply because he is a gay man."

He discussed the admission of homosexuals to the priesthood in the context of the sexual abuse of minors by priests: "You have to say that horrendous damage was done to people. Then you need to take steps to ensure this will never happen again."

He noted that "you cannot identify homosexuality with paedophilia" and that paedophilia is "not the result of homosexuality, nor is it a result of celibacy".

His remarks preceded the Congregation for Catholic Education's publication in November of a document on the same subject and later clarification that banned homosexuals who did not live chastely for at least three years.

Following Pope Benedict XVI's decree Summorum Pontificum liberalising the use of the Latin Mass, which took effect on 14 September 2007, Martin established a Latin Mass Chaplaincy in the Dublin City area.

In 2007, Martin announced that "a Catholic Church representative will visit every household in the Dublin Archdiocese next year. He predicted his evangelisation programme would promote greater co-operation between lay people and priests in the Church's mission and ministry".

In response to comments by Cardinal Seán Brady on the Civil Partnership Bill, Martin said: "We haven't expressed an opinion as an Episcopal Conference [on the bill]. I don't think anyone in the conference is against what Cardinal Brady said, but they may have said it in different ways."

He also said that while the Catholic Church favoured marriage, "it is not against other forms of intimacy".

At the end of the 49th International Eucharistic Congress held in Quebec in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the next International Eucharistic Congress would be held in Dublin in 2012, the second time that Dublin hosts the congress, the first being the 31st congress in 1932.

Martin addressed this topic again on Holy Thursday 2009, saying that the two biggest problems facing young people were the Catholic Church's condemnation of gay couples and the question of suicide.

He said that these were causing "a disconnect" which was causing "a dramatic and growing rift" between the Church and the younger generation.

On 11 November 2010, Pope Benedict met with Martin and members of the organising committee of the 50th Eucharistic Congress as well as participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace.

In May 2012, Martin said that the congress which begins in Dublin on 10 June "will reflect the Church in Ireland today. It will not be a going back to the church of 1932 or any other period. ... Its strength will be the quality of people's faith, not numbers. It will be a congress of prayer".

Speaking in Dublin at a discussion organised by the Communion and Liberation lay Catholic movement, Martin said that, when the Church speaks, it faces a severe hindrance: "When I was younger, if you did your Leaving Certificate examination through the medium of Irish you got a bonus on your mark – I think it was either a 10 per cent or 15 per cent – just for that fact. Today for the Church to make a credible statement on many aspects of public life or simply to talk about faith you start out with the opposite. You start out with a substantial percentage of credibility deficit."

He wondered: "How does one really begin to speak about faith? How does one attempt to reach out and lead young people on a journey of faith, when they in many ways have lost trust in a Church which many young people find no longer just 'irrelevant' but ... in which many young people say they have very little confidence".