Press Release
Immediate 29th July 2011
Statement of clarification on behalf of Archbishop Martin
Following the publication of an article on page three of this week’s Phoenix magazine, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin wishes to make a number of clarifications on the record; particularly as this magazine is a weekly publication and serious errors could go unchecked for that length of time and, as has happened in the past, be reprinted elsewhere.
There are unsubstantiated conjectures in the article among them the contention that Archbishop Martin and the Taoiseach Enda Kenny have had private meetings this year; this error of fact is flagged with the lines “it is reasonable to assume” and “not is it unreasonable to suggest”…
Archbishop Martin had one meeting with Mr. Kenny 7 years ago, shortly after his appointment as Archbishop of Dublin. Since then Archbishop Martin has neither requested nor had any other meetings with Mr. Kenny either in opposition or as Taoiseach.
The article also states that “on Enda’s elevation last March he (Archbishop Martin) wrote to the new Taoiseach stressing the new forum’s importance as part of Kenny’s democratic revolution”. Archbishop Martin has not written to the Taoiseach and he was not in attendance at the recent meeting of the forum for Church State dialogue. ENDS
