Vatican probing church response to abuse scandal

(November 12, 2010) The Vatican is moving ahead with its own investigation of how the Catholic Church in Ireland is responding to its massive sex abuse scandal. It promises the probe called ‘Apostolic Visitation” will be sweeping but not interfere with ongoing probes by magistrates or a parliamentary commission. A Vatican statement released on Friday said that it is not an investigation of individual cases or “a trial to judge past events” but a pastoral effort to verify the effectiveness of the Church's response to scandal and its assistance to victims. Pope Benedict XVI announced the investigation in a letter to Irish Catholics in March, addressing chronic abuse and decades of cover-up by church authorities. The Pope appointed a team of top prelates and nuns for the investigation that will begin in four archdioceses of the country as well as in seminaries and convents. The first phase of the inquiry should be completed by Easter 2011, so that the results can be studied in May.