The leader of the Irish Church has described the coronation of King Charles as “a sacred ceremony” at which he was “honoured” to represent the Catholics of Ireland.
Referring to the anointing of the King with sacred oils, Archbishop Eamon Martin said it underlined that this was “for somebody set apart to do God’s will”.
He said that what came across in the coronation ceremony was that the King is “called to serve his people, modelling himself on the servant King – Christ himself”.
“I think the late Queen Elizabeth certainly captured that in her life. She was a servant queen and Christ was her servant king. It will be very interesting to see how King Charles does.”
Speaking to The Tablet in Armagh, Archbishop Martin said a hand was extended to all Christian traditions and people of all faiths in the ceremony.
Asked about the presence of Sinn Féin’s Michelle O'Neill along with the leaders of all Northern Ireland’s main political parties in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, he said, “It was good to see politicians from the Nationalist and Republican perspective were there and accepted to be there. Remember we went there because we were invited to be there.
“When someone sends you an invitation, it is only courteous to say yes. I was very pleased to see in the Abbey people from Ireland, both north and south, present at a religious and sacred moment to pray and to be with King Charles.
“The New Testament is absolutely clear: St Paul says, ‘pray for those in leadership.’ That really is what I was trying to do.”
Ms O'Neill attended with Sinn Féin colleague Alex Maskey in his role as speaker of the Stormont Assembly. President Michael D. Higgins was the first Irish head of state to attend a coronation.
“I think it was very positive. I have been speaking a lot recently about the need for us to model reconciliation and to model new ways of friendship.”
The Primate of All Ireland said that one of the things that stuck him on Saturday was “the way that people seemed to be able to accept that somebody in such an important position was also a person of faith and unapologetically so. That is something I think we shouldn’t be afraid about in this country here.”
The Archbishop attended the coronation ceremony along with other Church leaders from Northern Ireland, Archbishop John McDowell, Anglican Primate of All Ireland, the Rt Rev Dr John Kirkpatrick, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Rev David Nixon, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland.
“I am very blessed to have struck up a really good faith relationship and working relationship with the other Christian Churches in Ireland,” Archbishop Martin commented.
Archbishop Martin spoke to the Tablet after the ordination of Fr Carlos Esteban Rojo in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh on Sunday.
Originally from Spain, Fr Rojo and his family moved to Ireland in 2010 and he studied for priesthood at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dundalk and at the national seminary in Maynooth.
The Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Seminary in Dundalk was established in 2012 to form priests for the Archdiocese of Armagh with a commitment to new evangelisation. Four men whose vocations were nurtured by the Neocatechumenal Way have been ordained as priests of the Archdiocese of Armagh in recent years and another fifteen are currently in formation. Formation in the seminary has a strong missionary dimension and Archbishop Eamon Martin is hopeful that the seminary “will continue to bear fruit for the Archdiocese of Armagh and for the Church in Ireland” a spokesman said.
Speaking about the impact the Neocatechumenal Way has had in just over a decade, Archbishop Martin told The Tablet, “One of the fruits of the Neocatechumenal Way is vocations. It is modelled on the whole idea of a small basic Christian community.”
He said there were several communities in the Archdiocese of Armagh in Drogheda, Dundalk and Newry and there are the seeds of a new community beginning in Magherafelt.
“The Redemptoris Mater seminary is committed to mission and to the New Evangelisation. So please God in time the fruits of this will be new vocations to the priesthood and religious life.”
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