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.”
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