The Irish Times: Dolan, Callahan to assist with Irish Church visitation

The visitation teams to Ireland are made up mainly of sons of the Irish diaspora. Included are two cardinals, five archbishops, three bishops, the head of a seminary in Rome and the head of a seminary in London. Four teams have been sent to each of Ireland’s four Catholic archdioceses, a fifth will visit Irish seminaries and houses of formation, while a sixth and seventh team will conduct visitations to the religious congregations.

The Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, leads the visitation team to Dublin’s archdiocese. Accompanying him are Barbara Thorp, director of the office for pastoral support and child protection in Boston, Fr John Connolly, special assistant to the cardinal, and lawyer Thomas Hannigan.

They arrived in Dublin on November 14th, stayed five days then and returned last weekend.

On March 6th, the Archbishop of Ottawa, Terence Prendergast, will resume a visitation to Tuam archdiocese which he began on December 13th last, when it lasted five days. He is accompanied by Fr James Conn, professor of Canon Law at the Gregorian University in Rome and at Boston College.

The visitation to Maynooth, St Malachy’s in Belfast, the Irish College in Rome, the Milltown Institute and All Hallows in Dublin, takes place from January 31st to February 7th. It will be led by the archbishop of New York and new president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Timothy Dolan.

He will be accompanied by the Archbishop of Baltimore (Maryland), Edwin O’Brien; the Bishop of Juneau (Alaska), Edward Burns; the Bishop of La Crosse (Wisconsin), William Callahan; the Bishop of Gaylord (Michigan), Bernard Hebda; and Msgr Francis Kelly, rector, Casa Santa Maria (the North American College), Rome. Fr Dennis McManus and Fr James Cruz, will assist.

The Irish Times