Ireland: World Meeting of Families welcoming to all, says Archbishop Martin

Mistakes were made where same sex-people were concerned in preparation for the World Meeting of Families, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said.

As the person in charge he took responsibility for what happened. But he insisted “the overall thrust of the preparation has been welcoming everybody and that remains the thrust”.

Last January five pictures of same-sex couples were removed from preparatory leaflets for the World Meeting of Families. Moreover, a video by Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles David O’Connell was edited to exclude his statement that all families would be welcome at the event, including gay families.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life – which oversees organisation of the World Meeting of Families from Rome – said he was not responsible for removal of the pictures or for editing Bishop O’Connell’s comments.

Asked whether he was responsible, the Archbishop replied: “I don’t think I was either. But, (as) it happened in the World Meeting of Families, I take responsibility as the person in charge and if mistakes were made I take responsibility for those.”

The situation of same-sex married couples in the Church would be addressed “in the RDS programme”, he said, referring to the three-day pastoral congress next month. The congress was also “one of the few conferences of that kind in which women speakers are in a majority”, he said. Read more via Irish Times