IT IS hoped the Vatican’s forthcoming “apostolic visitation” to Ireland will be completed by Easter,with the Holy See expected to issue “a comprehensive summary of the results” probably in June, according to a Holy See communique yesterday.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said with the release of yesterday’s document, the visitation, to all intents and purposes, had formally started.
Called for by Pope Benedict XVI in his pastoral letter to Irish Catholics last March, the visitation is intended to help the Irish church “on the path of profound spiritual renewal” in the wake of the clerical sex abuse crisis.
Yesterday’s press release follows meetings in Rome last month between curia cardinals, the visitors and four Irish bishops – Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop Dermot Clifford and Archbishop Michael Neary. The communique not only underlines the three-part nature of the visitation – to four metropolitan archdioceses, to seminaries and to religious orders – but it also partly indicates its terms of reference.
The Holy See makes it very clear that it in no way wishes to “interfere with the ordinary activity of local magistrates, nor with the activity of the commissions of investigation established by the Irish parliament”.
It also says the visitors will not be in Ireland in the guise of detectives.
“It is important to remember that the visitors are not expected to receive allegations of new or old cases of abuse.”
The Vatican also appears to address the concerns of victims and groups who have expressed an interest in meeting with the visitors. Priests, lay faithful and individuals who wish to meet visitors are asked to make such a request in writing to the specific visitor, via the papal nunciature.