IRELAND
The Journal
A DELEGATION of high-ranking Catholic officials sent to Ireland by Pope Benedict to deal with the aftermath of successive abuse scandals has proposed a series of reforms to tackle the Church’s difficulty.
The findings of the Apostolic Visitation, led by the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, propose imposing new restrictions on admission to seminaries, and including new child protection classes in the academic programme for trainee priests.
The Visitation has also proposed reforming the structure of Ireland’s 26 Church dioceses “and their ability to respond adequately to the challenges of the New Evangelisation”.
A summary of their findings, issued this morning by Vatican Radio, also outlines the need for a new focus on the role of lay people in the affairs of the Church, and the need to harness “new Ecclesial movements” (such as the World Youth Day event) to better reach the young generation.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.