Eamon Martin

This article is about the bishop. For the runner see Eamonn Martin

The Most Reverend Eamon Martin
Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh
Church	Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Armagh
See	Armagh
Appointed	18 January 2013
Installed	21 April 2013
Predecessor	Seán Brady
Orders
Ordination	28 June 1987 by Edward Daly
Consecration	21 April 2013 by Seán Brady
Personal details
Born	(1961-10-30) 30 October 1961 Derry, Northern Ireland
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Residence	Ara Coeli, Cathedral Road, Armagh, BT61 7QY
Parents	John James Martin and Catherine Crossan
Alma mater	St Patrick's College, Maynooth Queen's University Belfast Institute of Education University of Cambridge
Motto	Cantate Canticum Novum (Sing a new song)
Coat of arms

Eamon Martin (born 30 October 1961) is the coadjutor archbishop of Armagh since his episcopal consecration on 21 April 2013.^[1]

Biography

Martin was born in Derry in 1961. After his primary school education in St Patrick's, Pennyburn, Derry, he entered St Columb's College and eventually completed the training for the priesthood in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, obtaining BSc (Hons) in Mathematical Science from NUI Maynooth; BD (Hons) in Theology. He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Derry on 28 June 1987.^[2] After his ordination he served as a curate (assistant priest) at the cathedral of the Diocese of Derry from 1987 until 1989. He then served as a teacher at St Columb's College in Derry from 1990 to 1998. He then continued his studies at Queens University, Belfast from 1989-1990. Martin went on to study at St Edmund's College, Cambridge from 1998-1999 where he obtained a MPhil in school development.

From 1999 until 2008 he was President of St Columb's College, Derry. After this he was appointed Secretary-General of the Irish Episcopal Conference until 2010. From 2010-2011 he was Vicar General of the Diocese of Derry. From November 2011, with the resignation of Bishop Séamus Hegarty, until January 2013 he was elected as diocesan administrator. In 2011 he was appointed Chaplain of His Holiness.

Episcopal career

Styles of Eamon Martin
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor

On 18 January 2013 the appointment of Msgr Martin as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh. Martin said he was shocked when told of the appointment. “I am very conscious of the great trust that the Holy Father has placed in me, but in truth I have to admit it was with considerable nervousness and trepidation that I accepted his call,” he said. Mgr Martin addressed the abuse scandals that have been exposed over the last two decades. “One of the greatest challenges facing our Church is to acknowledge, live with, and learn from the past, including the terrible trauma caused by abuse,” he said.^[3] Bishop Emeritus of Derry Edward Daly said he was seen as "a clean pair of hands" after the church's abuse scandals. "He does not carry any baggage from the past with him," the bishop said.^[4]

Martin is also a director of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church - the body set up in the wake of widespread clerical abuse scandals in the Church in Ireland. On his appointment, he said one of the greatest challenges facing the church was to live with and learn from the past. He told a press conference in Armagh that the church "can never take it for granted that the safeguarding systems we have in place are robust and failsafe, so we have to keep working on that".^[5]

His episcopal consecration occurred on 21 April 2013.^[2]

Views

In light of the abortion debate, Archbishop Martin, in May 2013 said in an interview that any legislator who clearly and publicly supports abortion should not seek to receive communion as legislators who support abortion are excommunicating themselves.^[6]

References