VATICAN SOURCES suggested yesterday that it was only “natural” that Irish survivors of clerical child abuse would seek to meet with the visitors sent to Ireland for the forthcoming apostolic visitation.However, no such meetings have yet been confirmed for the good reason that the three parties involved in the visitation – the curia cardinals, the visitors and the four Irish archbishops – are meeting in Rome today and tomorrow, precisely to plan and co-ordinate the trip.
Reports yesterday indicated that the Right to Peace organisation has told some Irish bishops it would like to meet with the Vatican visitors.
Michael O’Brien of Right to Peace said his organisation was very keen to meet the apostolic visitors: “If they don’t meet me, I’ll be sitting outside wherever they are meeting . . . I would like to hear a proper apology [from Pope Benedict XVI] and I would like to hear it said that the church will make proper reparation to those who were abused as children by the church.”
Vatican insiders point out that while talk of financial “reparation” may not necessarily be helpful at this point, it would seem only logical that the Vatican visitors meet with and listen to various survivors’ groups.
Holy See figures, however, are keen to underline that the scope of this visitation is likely to extend beyond the painful and ugly reality of the sex abuse crisis to the question of the overall governance of the Irish church over the last 50 years.
The Holy See press office confirmed yesterday that the visitation has already partly begun with visitors having met with Irish religious orders in recent days.
However, the visitations to the archdioceses of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Tuam have not yet begun and will do so only after this week’s Holy See meeting to be attended by various curia cardinals, the visitors and the four Irish bishops – namely Cardinal Seán Brady,
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop Dermot Clifford and Archbishop Michael Neary.
As they did last February when the Irish bishops met with Pope Benedict, the Irish party this week will be staying in the Santa Marta residence inside the Vatican.
The four visitors to the archdioceses are: retired English cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor (Armagh), Boston cardinal Seán O’Malley (Dublin), Toronto archbishop Christopher Collins (Cashel) and Ottawa archbishop Terrence Prendergast (Tuam).
The Holy See press office yesterday suggested that the Congregation of Bishops, which is co-coordinating the visitation, may well release a communique regarding the terms and nature of the visitation later this month.
SIC: IT/IE