IRELAND’S Catholic priests have been encouraged by the Association of
Catholic Priests to meet a delegation sent to Ireland by Pope Benedict
as promised in his
Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland last March.
The
“apostolic visitors”, who arrived in Ireland in recent weeks, are
exploring how cases of sexual abuse of children by priests were handled
by the church in Ireland.
They have also been mandated to monitor
the effectiveness of current procedures for preventing abuse in the
Catholic Church in Ireland and to seek possible improvements to them.
The
visitation has begun with the four Catholic archdioceses of Armagh,
Dublin, Cashel and Emly, and Tuam, and will then be extended to other
dioceses.
The former archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac
Murphy-O’Connor, is visitor to Armagh; Archbishop of Boston Cardinal
Seán O’Malley is visitor to Dublin; Archbishop of Toronto Christopher
Collins is visitor to Cashel; and Archbishop of Ottawa Terrence
Prendergast visitor to Tuam.Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan is
visitor to the seminaries, including Maynooth and the Irish College in
Rome.
In a second phase, the apostolic visitors to male religious
congregations will be the Redemptorist Fr Joseph Tobin and Jesuit Fr
Gero McLaughlin. Sr Sharon Holland, of the Servants of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, and Sr Máirín McDonagh, of the Religious of Jesus and
Mary, will be visitors to female congregations.
Encouraging
priests to co-operate with the apostolic visitors, Fr Brendan Hoban of
the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said: “We believe that the
visit affords a considerable opportunity and a challenge for the
association and for individual priests who wish to make a contribution.”
He
was aware of “a lot of cynicism among priests about the wisdom and
effectiveness” of the visitation, but said that “whatever our
reservations . . . the visit is happening and our association needs to
take it seriously and to co-operate fully with it.
“We believe
that the visit affords a considerable opportunity and a challenge for
the association and for individual priests who wish to make a
contribution.”
On December 14th last Fr Hoban, Fr Colm Kilcoyne
and Fr Tony Flannery of the ACP met Archbishop Prendergast, accompanied
by Rev Prof James J Conn of Boston College.
“We were pleased that they
were attentive and receptive to our representations. Our positive
experience of the Tuam visitation encourages us to recommend to priests
and other members of our church that they engage with it,” Fr Hoban
said.
Applications for a meeting with the apostolic visitors can be made through the papal nunciature.
SIC: IT/IE