Archbishop Dolan Urges Irish Priests to be Grounded in Holiness
(31 May 10 – RV) On Monday, it was confirmed that the Apostolic Visitation of the
Church in Ireland will begin this Autumn. It will involve the nation’s four metropolitan
diocese, seminaries and religious congregations.
In a statement released
shortly after Monday’s announcement, the standing committee of the Irish Bishops Conference
pledged their full cooperation and greeted the Visitation as “an expression of the
personal closeness of Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland, [that] represents
one more important step on the path to healing, reparation and renewal in the Church
in Ireland”.
In a separate statement the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid
Martin, said he “looks forward to receiving the Formal document which will define
the nature and the precise terms and objectives of the Visitation”.
The
Apostolic Visitation was first announced by Pope Benedict in his March Letter to the
Catholics of Ireland, written in the aftermath of an extraordinary summit with all
of the bishops of Ireland. It is part of a process called for by the Pope to address
the shocking findings of the Ryan and Murphy reports into the abuse of children by
religious and clergy in the last century.
Pope Benedict has named four
senior prelates to visit the four Metropolitan Archdiocese in Ireland. They are Cardinal
Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, Cardinal O'Malley, Boston, Archbishop
Thomas Collins of Toronto, and Archbishop Terence Prendergast SJ, Ottawa.
The
Apostolic Visitors, as they are known, are all of Irish origin and all have experience
in investigating and responding to allegations of sexual abuse in their own countries.
Moreover the Pope has appointed Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York Visitor
to the Irish seminaries, including the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.
While
the main aim of the Visitation is to “explore more deeply questions concerning the
handling of cases of abuse and the assistance owed to the victims”; another equally
pressing matter is formation of future priests in Ireland.
Only last week
Archbishop Dolan was in Ireland where he delivered a lecture on priesthood at the
nation’s Major Seminary, Maynooth. There he told the young men to be “grounded in
holiness”. He said that “To those who claim the problem is that.. Church teaching
is too holy..too out of touch, I say the problem is lack of fidelity to it”, “…holiness
means wholeness and wholeness means integrity, and a man of integrity hardly abuses
our youth or overlooks the crimes of those who do”.