By Nick Squires
The Telegraph
May 31, 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7790597/Cardinal-Cormac-Murphy-OConnor-to-lead-Irish-sex-abuse-investigation.html
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor will carry out a wide-ranging investigation into the scandal, which has caused outrage among Irish Catholics and forced the resignation of three bishops.
Working alongside prominent cardinals and archbishops from the US and Canada, he will look at procedures that are currently designed to prevent abuse and study possible ways to improve them.
Pope Benedict XVI announced the inquiry, formally known as an "apostolic visitation", in March in an unprecedented open letter to the Irish people about the scandals.
The letter followed two damning reports by the Irish government, which found that clerics had "obsessively" concealed abuse and protected paedophile priests.
The Vatican said it wanted "to respond adequately to the situation caused by the tragic cases of abuse perpetrated by priests" and promote the "spiritual and moral renewal" of the Irish Church.
The inquiry, which begins in the autumn, will initially focus on four dioceses - Armagh, Dublin, Cashel-Emly, and Tuam - and then be extended to others.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor will lead the investigation in Armagh, visiting churches and seminaries and interviewing rank-and-file Catholics.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor was himself the subject of intense criticism over his handling of a paedophile priest.
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| Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O\'Connor Photo by PA |
In 1985, the Cardinal, then Bishop of the Arundel and Brighton Diocese, appointed Father Michael Hill to Gatwick Airport despite experts warning that he could be a danger to children.
Victims' groups demanded the senior cleric's resignation in 2002 when Hill was jailed and the Cardinal was forced to apologise to victims.
Meanwhile, the Pope accepted the resignation of an Irish-born archbishop working in West Africa who was accused of having a 20-year relationship with a woman that broke his vow of celibacy.
Archbishop Richard Burke, who led the diocese of Benin City in Nigeria, is the latest head to roll in a sex abuse scandal that in recent months has embroiled Benedict's native Germany, as well as Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Brazil.
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