Will Vatican probe of abuse scandal look into overall health of Irish Church?

October 08, 2010

Writing in the Irish Herald, Garry O’Sulivan, the editor of the Irish Catholic follows up on his earlier suggestion that the Irish bishops have sought to limit the scope of an apostolic visitation into the Irish Church, but Vatican officials have resisted their efforts. O’Sullivan argues that the Vatican investigation will look beyond sex-abuse complaints in search of an underlying cause:

The Vatican believes that the culture that set into the Irish church in the 1960s onwards weakened the faith in Ireland and led to a loss of respect for the Church and its teachings. The investigators will want to look at this.

If O’Sullivan’s analysis is on target, the inquiry in Ireland could prove to be a turning point in the Church’s worldwide struggle to address the scandal, perhaps leading to the overdue recognition that the sex-abuse crisis is not an isolated problem but a symptom of a wider disease.

 

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Further information:

• Vatican investigation may well change the Church as we know it (Herald)
• Irish bishops working to limit scope of apostolic visitation? (CWN, 10/7)