Rome, Italy, Jun 7, 2011 / 13:31 pm
English Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor describes Ireland as “A country I love very much,” but also as a nation that needs the prayers of Catholics around the globe as it struggles to recover from the abuse scandals in the local Church.
The former Archbishop of Westminster is part of the six-man team that has just completed an audit of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
“I think it also needs our prayers as well for a country which I love very much and for the Church in Ireland which in the past has done so much for the Catholic Church all over the world with regards to missionaries and everything else,” he told Vatican Radio June 7.
The Apostolic Visitation of the Irish Catholic Church was announced by Pope Benedict back in March 2010, following a series of scandals publicized by government reports on physical and sexual abuse in the Irish Church. On June 7, the Vatican announced that the investigating team’s reports were now with Rome and that an official response is expected by early 2012.