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 Irelandlast 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.
