IRELAND
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Mark Dooley

Yesterday, the Vatican published a report based on an Apostolic Visitation to the Irish Church last year. In response to the deep and disturbing crisis which has engulfed the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI dispatched a number of senior prelates to Ireland with a view to ascertaining the true extent of the disaster. Nothing could have prepared them for what they encountered.

When the Pope announced his intention to send a delegation to Ireland, I was lecturing at Maynooth University – the home of Ireland’s National Seminary. I got to know many of the seminarians as they were obliged to attend my philosophy lectures. They also knew that, as someone with a public profile, I was in a position to highlight their grievances.

Those grievances were shocking – so shocking that I did not hesitate to use my column in the…