Published Friday, 19 February 2010
Victim's groups claimed the Archbishop was reprimanded in Rome when he came face to face with Pope Benedict XVI for speaking out on behalf of survivors in the past.
Maeve Lewis, of One in Four, said people were disappointed the Pontiff would not be acknowledging senior clergy covered up decades of abuse and that pending bishops' resignations may not be accepted.
Ms Lewis felt the bishops were closing ranks and keeping their heads down until the abuse scandal moved off the news agenda.
"Diarmuid Martin in the past was at the forefront in providing real leadership in relation to the sexual abuse of children," she said.
"Today I felt I was speaking to a very different man from the one we met last Saturday before he travelled to Rome.
"We asked him if he had been reprimanded in Rome and he denied that he was."
The Archbishop said no member of the clergy in Rome challenged the findings of the Murphy report.
"I do not think I am a different person. I follow my conscience and I do not feel different," he said.
Twenty-four of the country's senior clerics were summoned to Rome to answer questions over the mishandling of sickening child abuse, subsequent investigations and the scandals exposed in the Ryan report into state-run institutions and the Murphy report into cover-ups in the Dublin Archdiocese.
Victims were left furious after Pope Benedict brought the unprecedented two days of talks to a close but did not acknowledge Irish bishops covered up paedophilia among priests.
The Pope also did not formally apologise or mention the resignation of bishops.
The Archbishop said he was saddened victims felt the response was not what they wanted.
"I respect that and I understand they hurt, but I'm more optimistic in my evaluation," he said.
"We possibly placed too high expectations on a single moment. This is an ongoing process."