Liberals should stick to the point in debate on non-marital relationships

NORMALLY, it’s the other way around. You see the words ‘archbishop’, ‘hurt’ and ‘remark’ and you can join the dots. Archbishop Connell must have spoken his mind again. Perhaps he’s made a comment on inter-communion or marriage, or some other touchy subject. The Irish Times is offended. Liberal theologians are lamenting. Outraged callers are ringing Liveline.

Imagine my surprise then, on opening Monday's newspaper to discover the world has turned upside down. The same words as in the old days: 'Archbishop...hurt... remark'. But this time Dr Diarmuid Martin, the man who will succeed Cardinal Connell as Archbishop of Dublin, was the wounded party.

"It would not be honest of me speaking here today," he told a Church of Ireland congregation, "not to refer to a certain hurt that I felt in these days by words attributed in the press to a Church of Ireland figure which somehow gave the impression that those who hold different theological positions to the author on the subject of homosexuality were perhaps less sincere, even fundamentalist, or were associated with having been 'devious' on other serious issues."