Archbishop of Boston, Sean O’Malley will meet with the victims of abuse in the Dublin diocese over the coming months as part of the apostolic visitation sent to Ireland by Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal O’Malley visited Dublin at the beginning of December and will return this month and in February to meet with the victims of clerical abuse in Ireland.
The delegation is visiting Ireland to explore how the clerical sexual abuse of children in Ireland was handle. They will also be looking at the effectiveness of the procedures in place to prevent abuse in the Church.
The former archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor visited the archdiocese of Armagh before Christmas according to Cardinal Sean Brady. He said “He will return this month accompanied by his team and we welcome it and we will co-operate.”
Archbishop of Toronto Christopher Collins and Archbishop of Ottowa Terrence Prendergast are also visiting the archdioceses of Cashel and Tuam respectively.
According to the Holy See the delegation will have completed its mission by May this year. The Vatican has still not revealed whether the results of the apostolic visitors would be made public.
On Wednesday Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin and Cardinal Sean Brady were present at the launch of “Share the Good News”, a ten-year plan which covers evangelization, religious education and catechesis, which is essentially the process by which people are introduced to the faith.
Dr Martin called the plan “revolutionary” and a “time bomb”. He said “It is an invitation to break away from our current situation, which is overly school-orientated, and bring back into the picture in a more focused way the central role of the parish and the family.”
He also pointed out that the plan was being published during a time of great change in Irish religious culture. He said “There are various contending voices and interest groups, speaking often in a polarized way, and there is very little common reflection on what the right way forward should be. I still believe that a broad national forum on the future of education provision and the place of faith education in the Irish educational system would be of value.”
4 Comments
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Intercessor | Jan 22, 2011, 08:57 AM EST
The semi-sainted, Cardinal O'Malley will have his hands full, explaining the latest revelations of Vatican Coverups, complete with the 1997 letter to the Irish Bishops, which basically "encourages" them not to involve the police in the investigation of their precious Pedophile Priests. After-all, they were told to be "Fathers," to these perverted priests, rather than policemen. Why not ask Cardinal O'Malley to explain why Pedophile Priests had more rights than the children, who they were raping and sodomizing. His answer should show how much spiritual discernment, he really has. The world is waiting for his honest answer, rather than empty apologies from the Vatican.
barneyjo | Jan 18, 2011, 06:45 PM EST
I gather that the Diocese of Ferns financed the building of a retirememt dwelling for the disgraced former Bishop of that diocese, Dr Brendan Comisky, and I believe he is still residing within the Diocese.
pacifist | Jan 17, 2011, 06:59 PM EST
I don't think the final report will deal with all of the cases that need to be investigated. As I live in Donegal, within the Diocese of Raphoe, it is unlikely that the cases of clerical sexual abuse here and the failure of the bishops to deal with it appropriately will be thoroughly scrutinized. One particular priest, a Fr. Green, was a notorious sexual abuses of children was was moved from parish to parish for many years. He was eventually convicted, served time in jail, but thanks to many people who could not accept the truth of his guilt money was raised to buy him a house in Co. Galway where he no resides in comfort.
eiriamach | Jan 07, 2011, 03:09 PM EST
What is "revolutionary" about teaching the catechism? Most of the laity have already moved well beyond Cardinal O'Malley's thinking. I'd advise him to visit the praytellblog [dot] com and read an article by the author of "The Perfumed Traditionalists." According to its Zurich reviewer, “The promise in the book’s blurb to offer the key to the scandals of the Roman Church is almost an understatement. It offers the key to the Ratzinger pontificate as a whole.” The author calls for Catholics to recognize that the Vatican has drawn far-right extremist teachings into the center of church life. Thus the Church has become "a fundamentalist sect, a 'holy remnant,' and distances itself ever more from the rest of society." This author addresses the self-delusion of the Vatican about the homosexuality of its clergy and the decline of the Church's encouragement of the arts and humane culture. (If I recall, Bishop Dolan recently took the NY Times to task for one of its reviews in the arts. Clergy have come a long way since Dante Aligheiri had the freedom in 14th century Italy to write of his journey through the Inferno and his contempt for the popes he met there.) Many Catholics and ex-Catholics would add that the church's teachings on women and its abuse of children compound the problems that call for a true revolution, not just a "let's get together and feel alright" approach to re-filling the church buildings on Sundays.