THE APOSTOLIC visitor to Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese Cardinal Seán O’Malley said yesterday that he and his team “look forward to meeting with as many as possible from the victims themselves, the bishops, the priests and religious and the laity of the archdiocese, knowing that the crisis of the sexual abuse of minors has profound repercussions in the life of the entire community”.
Speaking in Dublin’s pro-cathedral at the 11am Mass, the cardinal, who is archbishop of Boston, said, “because the viewpoint of the clergy and laity are so crucial, I have asked Ms Barbara Thorp, Fr John Connolly and Mr Thomas Hannigan to accompany me and assist in this visitation. They have been invaluable collaborators in Boston, and I am certain their experience will be very helpful to me during this visitation.”
Anyone wishing “to share their testimony can contact me through the apostolic nunciature here in Dublin, to request an appointment, or submit their thoughts in written form, also through the nunciature,” he said. The cardinal will be in Dublin until Friday. Then cardinals from around the world will meet in Rome to address issues raised by the Anglicanorum Coetibus, set up to accommodate disaffected Anglican clergy, as well as clerical abuse, and the pope’s 10-year-old Dominus Iesus document. “I shall return early next year to continue this important work. Please pray that this visitation will be helpful to the people of Ireland, will advance the safety of children in society as a whole and promote the healing and reconciliation that we all desire,” he said.
“The Holy Father envisions this as a pastoral visit to assist the church here on the path to renewal,” he said. He and his team were “here to be available to meet with some of those who have been harmed by abuse and wish to meet with us. We will attempt to communicate to them the apologies of a contrite church and the pastoral solicitude of the Holy Father.
“Likewise, we will try to assess how well the guidelines of Safeguarding Children, produced by the national board, are working.”
He noted that “in Dublin much has been done already to address the crimes of the past and to develop sound policies to ensure the safety of children and to provide assistance to the victims of child abuse. The task of the visitation is to bring new eyes to the situation, to verify the effectiveness of the present processes used in responding to cases of abuse. We are not here to reduplicate investigations or studies of the past.”
He recalled his first visit to the pro-cathedral was in 1963 and coincided with the visit of President John F Kennedy. “My family left these shores for America in the difficult decades after the Famine, the Reidys from Co Clare and the O’Malleys from Mayo . . . The only vestiges of that journey that our family still treasures are a two-volume History of Ireland by the Abbé MacGeoghegan and a beautiful statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus . . .
“What they did not leave behind was their Catholic faith and their great love for Ireland. I was raised with both. And it is with that same love for the Irish people that I come to this visitation. I have come to listen, not to offer a quick fix. I come to listen to your pain, your anger, but also your hopes and aspirations.”
Welcoming the cardinal and his team, Archbishop Martin said “the archdiocese of Dublin today is wounded by sinful and criminal acts of priests who betrayed the trust of vulnerable young children”. People had “lost their trust in the church. For many young people the recent scandals have become the final element in their alienation.” It called for a “renewal” and “recognition of what was done wrong in the past – particularly to the weakest”.
