Vatican City, Nov 12, 2010 / 13:08 pm
The Vatican announced on Nov. 12 that the Apostolic Visitation of the Irish Church has begun, following the directives in Pope Benedict XVI's pastoral letter to Irish Catholics.
The visitation will follow up on concerns about the Irish hierarchy's handling of abuse cases, in addition to surveying seminaries and religious orders to discover ways to renew them.
Two government inquiries produced alarming reports in 2009, detailing sexual and other physical abuse in the Irish church, as well as Church authorities' efforts to keep the incidents secret. Irish bishops met with Pope Benedict in February after the findings came to light.
Three groups of apostolic visitors, appointed by Pope Benedict, will now survey the Irish Church, with one group visiting the four metropolitan archdioceses, another the Irish seminaries, and a third the houses of religious life.