Following up on his apologetic letter to Irish Catholics earlier this year, Pope Benedict has appointed a team of high-ranking clergy to conduct an Apostolic Visitation to Ireland, which has been hit hard by the clergy abuse scandal.

The team, a kind of investigative commission, is a who’s who of diaspora Irish Catholic leaders: Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, Archbishop Thomas Prendergast of Ottawa, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, retired leader of English Catholicism. Starting this autumn, they will focus on Ireland’s dioceses, religous orders and seminaries.

For more on this, check out Catholic News Agency’s story and David Gibson’s piece in Politics Daily, and share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

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