of Cashel and Emly, met for high-level talks with heads of Vatican congregations regarding the apostolic visitation. This visitation was prompted by the publication of the Murphy and Ryan reports. While in Rome, the metropolitans met a team of investigators appointed by Pope Benedict to examine the four provinces and "some other as yet unspecified dioceses". The team included: the Cardinal-Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who inspected Armagh; the Archbishop of Boston, Seán O'Malley, who inspected Dublin; the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Christopher Collins, who inspected Cashel; the Archbishop of Ottawa, Terrence Prendergast, who inspected Tuam. An investigation of the state of Irish seminaries will be conducted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. The apostolic visitors reported their findings directly to Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop Martin on 20 February 2011 said that the Church has a long way to journey in honesty before it merits forgiveness for the abuse of children. Archbishop Martin then made what victims said was the most explicit apology to date for the role of the Church hierarchy in enabling the abuse. Three of the victims held hands and sobbed as Martin poured water on their feet and Cardinal O'Malley dried them with a towel. During the service Archbishop Martin said "I can express my sorrow, my sense of the wrong that was done to you. I think of how you were not heard or not believed and not comforted and supported. I can ask myself how did this happen in the Church of Jesus Christ where as we heard in the Gospel children are presented to us as signs of the kingdom. How did we not see you in your suffering and abandonment?" He continued: "Someone once reminded me of the difference between on the one hand apologising or saying sorry and on the other hand asking forgiveness. I can bump into someone on the street and say "Sorry". It can be meaningful or just an empty formula. When I say sorry I am in charge. When I ask forgiveness however I am no longer in charge, I am in the hands of the others. Only you can forgive me; only God can forgive me. I, as Archbishop of Dublin and as Diarmuid Martin, stand here in this silence and I ask forgiveness of God and I ask for the first steps of forgiveness from all of the survivors of abuse." Comments on