VATICAN: Outcome could have an impact on the Catholic Church worldwide, writes Paddy Agnew, from Rome
Pope John Paul II, senior curia figures and at least 11 cardinals from the US will come together this morning in the Vatican for one of the most unusual, most media-hyped and potentially significant meetings of his entire 23-year long pontificate.
The Vatican's surprise decision one week ago to call the US cardinals to Rome to discuss the ramifications of the US church sexual abuse scandal has prompted an outburst of media speculation suggesting that this meeting may take some radical steps, ranging from a sound rap over the knuckles for the US hierarchy to a re-evaluation of the concept of a celibate priesthood itself.
Vatican officials, however, have been keen to point out in the last week that nothing radical, no "magic solution" will come out of this week's two-day meeting which is not seen as a disciplinary hearing but rather a chance for consultation and an exchange of views. In effect, these meetings - four three-hour sessions today and tomorrow - are about governance not misconduct. Above all, church doctrine on the issue of priestly celibacy is not up for debate.
The Pope has often made clear his views on the "gift" of celibacy but lest anyone fail to get the doctrinal point, he himself spelt it out loud and clear in a significant address to Nigerian bishops in Rome on Saturday in which he underlined "the value of celibacy as a complete gift of self to the Lord and His church", adding: "Behaviour which might give scandal must be carefully avoided and you yourselves must diligently investigate accusations of any such behaviour, taking firm steps to correct it where it is found to exist."
Notwithstanding that apparent blocking marker, this week's meeting has huge significance if only because it will discuss policies and procedures on charges of sexual abuse. Given the significance of the US church, culturally and economically, within the Catholic world, then whatever indications emerge this week could have an impact on the Catholic Church worldwide, Ireland included.
Among those issues due to be addressed are the handling of future abuse allegations, the level of church co-operation with civil authority investigations, the need to better prepare seminarians for a celibate life, the question of how to handle sex-abuse offenders within the clergy and, above all, the need to show a sense of contrition for the victims of that abuse.
In the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston on Sunday, Cardinal Bernard Law, himself at the very epicentre of the storm that has prompted this meeting, suggested that the Vatican summons to Rome represented a "wake-up call" for the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Law's remarks were probably addressed to the US Catholic Church yet they could also apply to the Vatican itself. Many critics argue that the Vatican has been slow to respond to a crisis which it has tended to see as being an exclusively "Anglo-Saxon" problem.
Pope John Paul II and his senior advisers - first among them Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - will this week attempt a delicate balancing act. While refusing to give an inch on priestly celibacy, they must at the same time convince US and world opinion that they intend to openly and irrevocably put their own house in order.
Even for a Pope with a true genius for PR, this is a tall order.