Archbishop Eamon Martin delivered a lecture at the University of East Anglia in Norwich yesterday evening on the theme ‘The Church in the Public Sphere – a perspective from Ireland’. Here is an extended extract from his speech.

Presidents, prime ministers and kings were returning to their own nations tonight after the funeral of one remarkable man had drawn millions to Rome for the largest gathering of the powerful and the humble in modern times.

Presidents, prime ministers and kings joined pilgrims and prelates in St Peter’s Square today to bid farewell to Pope John Paul at a funeral service that drew millions to Rome for one of the largest religious gatherings in the West of modern times.