REVEREND Philip Boyce, Bishop of Raphoe, this week joined fellow Irish bishops in Rome for discussions with Pope Benedict XVI on the handling of clerical sex abuse in dioceses.
The meeting comes on the heels of further convictions for sexual offences by clerics in Donegal with the seven year sentence imposed on Carrigart born Daniel Doherty last week for the rape of a 13 years old female parishioner in 1985. His older brother Fr John Doherty was sentenced to three years imprisonment after he was convicted of sexually assaulting four altar boys in the 1970s.
Bishop Boyce and his fellow bishops face a rigorous scrutiny by the Pope and his advisers over the next fortnight as to how effectively they have handled the clerical child-abuse scandals in their respective dioceses and countrywide.
The bishops will also be expected to give their account of how they have addressed a variety of issues effecting the church today in a more multi-cultural and secularised Ireland.
Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh will lead the 32 Irish Bishops to the Holy See where they will present individual reports on the state of religion in Ireland to the Pope and the civil-service heads of the Roman Curia.
The interviews started on Monday and will continue to the end of the month. This is part of the bishops' regular five-yearly visit to Rome to report on their work in the country's 26 dioceses.
This month's visit was scheduled to take place with the late Pope John Paul 11 in 2004, however, the late Pontiff was too ill.
John Paul 11 spoke sternly of the "terrible scandal" of abusing priests, and expressed his solidarity with those who had been "the victims of sexual abuse on the part of clerics and religious".
Last December the bishops issued their updated child-protection policies and procedures in the document titled, 'Our Children, Our Church'.
Because of the number of Irish-born priests involved in abuse scandals around the English speaking world, there is growing curiosity as to how Pope Benedict will respond to the bishops' explanations.
