BY CAROL GLATZ IN ROME
THE APOSTOLIC visitation of the Catholic church in Ireland will pay special attention to victims of clerical sex abuse as part of its overall goal of helping the local Church respond adequately to past cases of abuse and to perfect preventative measures, according to the Vatican.
“The visitators will give particular attention to victims of abuse and their families, but will also meet with and listen to a variety of people, including ecclesiastical authorities, lay faithful and those involved with the crucial work of safeguarding children,” said a statement released by the Vatican press office.
Vatican officials held a series of preparatory and planning meetings with the Apostolic Visitators named by Pope Benedict XVI and with the Irish archbishops whose dioceses will be the first to be investigated.
The Irish Church leaders – Cardinal Seán Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, and Archbishops Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Dermot Clifford of Cashel and Emly, and Michael Neary of Tuam – met the prelates conducting the visitations and officials from the Congregation for Bishops and the Vatican Secretariat of State.
The meeting, which was “marked by fraternal warmth and mutual collaboration, summarised the discussions from the previous day and focused on the organisation of the Apostolic Visitation and the archdioceses involved”, the Vatican statement said.
Last week, the prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Bishops and other Vatican officials met the four apostolic visitators: British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, who will conduct the visitation of the Archdiocese of Armagh, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, who will visit the Archdiocese of Dublin, Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, who will conduct the visitation of the Archdiocese of Cashel, and Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa, Ontario, who will visit the Archdiocese of Tuam.
“Mindful of the tragic abuse of children that has taken place in Ireland, the participants discussed the particular aspects of this important visitation,” the statement said.
The statement reiterated that the visitation is a sign of the Pope’s desire to “offer his pastoral solicitude to the Church in Ireland” and that the visitation’s aim is to help the local Church “on her path to renewal”.
Pope Benedict announced plans for a visitation in his letter to Catholics in Ireland, promising to root out the problem that the Church had ignored in the past.