PATRICK CLAFFEY Focus on Ireland


tators to listen to those who have been abused by priests or Religious and to demonstrate the Church’s remorse, there has been another aspect that has been unreported. Part of the team’s remit has been to inves- tigate seminaries and institutes of theology, and this task has been entrusted to the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan. The Irish College in Rome and Ireland’s national seminary, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, have come under particularly close scrutiny.


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16 | THE TABLET | 12 March 2011


Rome’s wider remit W


hile the public face of the Apostolic Visitation of the Church in Ireland has shown the determination of the visi-


working document or instrumentum laboris that relates to the seminaries. This sets out the intention to “cover all aspects of priestly formation”, noting that “special attention will be given to the criteria for admission of can- didates, and the programmes for human and spiritual formation aimed at ensuring that they can faithfully live in chastity for the Kingdom. Furthermore, attention will be reserved for the intellectual formation of sem- inarians, to examine its fidelity to the Magisterium, especially in the field of moral theology” (Instrumentum laboris [IL], 1, 3). While it is clear that Archbishop Dolan is simply following the guidance given in the working document, this part of the visitation appears to have caused some concern to staff involved and members of the wider theological community in Ireland, particularly in the field of moral theology. Although the college authorities would not comment on any aspect of the visitation, it is widely reported in the small Irish theological world that lecturers in moral theology, and only in this discipline, were asked to provide copies of their lecture notes, including PowerPoint presentations. This raises several questions, not least that of the trust that should exist here. The visitation appeared determined to seek


out any scent of “the influences of New Age and eclectic spirituality” (IL 6.8) but most particularly any traces of “contemporary sub- jectivism and in particular … moral relativism” (IL 7.2) in the taught syllabus. One person who participated in this part of the visitation said that what it seemed to be seeking was an adherence to moral absolutes, traditional forms of piety and a particular understanding of “the concept of priesthood” based on strict readings of Magisterial teaching. Another was particularly worried about what seemed like a desire to remove candidates from the world and from contact with modern daily life in a quasi- monastic setting that would do little to advance their personal formation and readi- ness for ministry. The working document refers repeatedly to the need for an awareness of child abuse and protection issues. It also refers to the issue of homosexuality and asks how “faculty members watch out for signs of ‘particular friendships’”. One could also ask whether this implies that there is some link between homo- sexuality and child abuse, a view that would be largely disparaged as intellectually flawed.


The Vatican’s visitation of the Church in Ireland comes in the wake of the country’s clerical abuse scandal, but moral theologians at seminaries and houses of formation have been dismayed to find that it is their loyalty to the Magisterium that has been under scrutiny


The overall tone of this document appears to be quite inquisitorial and has caused consid- erable unease. The visitation was announced by Pope Benedict XVI in his “Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland” in March 2010. Its stated purpose was “to offer assistance to the bishops, clergy, Religious and lay faithful as they seek to respond adequately to the situation caused by the tragic cases of abuse perpetrated by priests and Religious upon minors. It is also intended to contribute to the desired spiritual and moral renewal that is already being vig- orously pursued by the Church in Ireland.” The Pope appointed five senior prelates to head the visitation to the four archdioceses of Ireland: Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor, Emeritus Archbishop of Westminster, for the Archdiocese of Armagh; Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, for the Archdiocese of Dublin; Thomas Christopher Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, for the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, where another report soon to be pub- lished on the Cloyne Diocese is expected to be very damaging; Terrence Thomas Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa, for the Archdiocese of Tuam. As we have seen Archbishop Dolan was appointed to head the visitation to houses of formation for the future priests of the Church in Ireland. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life will organise a visit of the religious con- gregations in Ireland led by male and female Religious. In preparation for the meetings, the par- ticipants were asked to consider three specific if rather broad questions: reaction to the Murphy report; people’s thoughts on the vis- itation itself; and how they saw the future of the Church in Ireland. In Dublin Archdiocese Cardinal O’Malley received up to 250 people individually or in groups, with many meetings running well over the scheduled time. It was clear from the comments of those who participated that they were impressed by the cardinal’s listening skills and they consider the meetings to have been open and honest.


One senior priest, Mgr Dan O’Connor, was


keen to emphasise that there was no way that this part of the process could be considered a whitewash and says that all the painful issues were raised, and some were very painful indeed. Daire Keogh, a historian at St Patrick’s


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