Archbishop Martin breaks silence to deny issue with Pope’s leadership

ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has broken his week-long silence following the controversial speech where he spoke of “strong forces” operating within the Church to state that “he stands by the affirmations in his original speech”.

He also denied he had any issue with Pope Benedict.

His press statement last evening follows newspaper allegations that he had ‘backed off’ from his claims made to the Knights of Columbanus last week that “strong forces” within the Catholic Church were trying to stop the truth about clerical sex abuse.