There are few trickier positions in the Church than being head of the Church in Ireland – as opposed to the Church of Ireland, that being a Protestant institution. But Eamon Martin, the Archbishop of Armagh, is doing his best. In his New Year message to the Church, he tried to distance the Church from any association with combative anti-immigration sentiment.
But it is his observations to the Irish edition of the Sunday Times which are more striking than his studious moderation. He addressed one of the most explosive issues in Church–State relations, namely the bid by left-of-centre political parties to expropriate the property of religious orders to pay compensation to the victims of historic abuse scandals, which encompass a broad range of grievances. Norma Foley, the current coalition government’s Minister for Children, has written to the Attorney General to seek legal avenues to compel religious orders to contribute to redress schemes. The Archbishop warned that “we need to be careful about political opportunism” and said that “I would hope that we are not back in Penal times where the churches will be unjustly targeted with regard to assets”. Almost all of these assets are intended for charitable purposes and were given to the orders for those purposes.
