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  Cardinal O'Malley, Ireland, and the Latest on the Clergy Abuse Crisis

By Emily Rooney
WGBH
November 15, 2010

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/episode.cfm?featureid=18814

Cardinal Sean O'Malley calls it a listening visitation: he has been sent to Ireland by Pope Benedict XVI, and says he's there to listen to the pain, anger, and hopes, and aspirations of the Irish people, following revelations last year of widespread sexual abuse by priests in Ireland that stretched over decades. Cardinal O'Malley says his task is to bring new eyes to the situation, and he says he will meet with as many victims as possible. He says, "We will attempt to communicate to them the apologies of a contrite church, and the pastoral solicitude of the Holy Father."

Joining me here in the studio is Terry McKiernan, Founder and President of BishopAccountability.org. Terry, what do you make of this? I mean, Sean O'Malley has been called in many times – this is the fourth time, in fact – as kind of a Mr. Fixit for the histories of priest sexual abuse, first in 1992, after the revelations about James Porter in Fall River. Then he went to Palm Beach in 2002, after two previous bishops there admitted sexually abusing minors. Then he came here in Boston in 2003, replacing Cardinal Bernard Law, who was of course run out of town in the revelations by the Boston Globe of the widespread sexual abuse here. And now he's been named the apostolic visitor to the Archdiocese of Dublin.

McKiernan: Well, I think that in a way he's a logical choice, because I his approach really is to pour oil on the waters and keep things contained. He has done that well in Fall River, as you say, Palm Beach, and Boston. I'm not sure it's going all that well so far in Dublin.

Rooney: You have a newspaper there – what does it say?

McKiernan: The front page of the Irish Times this morning has a headline, "US Cardinal Told Apostolic Visit Off to 'a Very Poor Start.'"

 
 

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