Martin needs to offer hope and solutions

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin is without doubt the most impressive and respected prelate in the country.

This is so chiefly because he has said what the public wants to hear, and needs to hear, on the issue of clerical abuse. But he has not only said what needs to be said, he has also done what needs to be done.

Not that he is the only bishop who has done what needs to be done. So has the Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, and the Bishop of Kilmore, Leo O’Reilly, among others. But they do not speak about the abuse issue in the same powerful, confidence-building way that Archbishop Martin does.