Rome move story upsetting and damaging, says Martin

ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has described claims that he’s going to Rome to take up a senior position in the Curia as “a pure invention”.

The 60-year-old archbishop said there was “no truth” in the story which appeared on the front page of yesterday’s Irish Independent and that it was “upsetting and damaging”.

The newspaper’s religious affairs specialist, John Cooney, claimed Dr Martin’s imminent departure was part of Pope Benedict XVI’s far-ranging reform of the Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administration.

Dr Martin’s experience is widely believed to mean he will be promoted at some stage, but he denied speculation he will move into a revamped Curia in a shake-up which is expected to come when the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and Cardinal Walter Kasper retire.

It was also claimed that Archbishop Martin would be replaced by Bishop Eamonn Walsh, a lawyer who won widespread acclaim for his handling of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Diocese of Ferns.

Bishop Walsh said he wouldn’t be adding further to Dr Martin’s denial of the story, which John Cooney is standing over.

Dr Martin, who became Archbishop of Dublin on April 26, 2004, is an expert on Third World issues and five years ago represented the Holy See at the UN.

He was ordained in 1969 and has been a member of various Vatican offices, including the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

A friend of Bono, the archbishop has also taken part in the activities of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, especially on the theme of international debt and poverty reduction.

He also led the delegations of the Holy See to the 2001 Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation and the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.