VATICAN CITY (AFP) - – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday accepted the resignation of Limerick Bishop Donal Murray over Ireland's child sex abuse scandal, the Vatican announced.
Murray was named in a report last month that concluded that top prelates concealed clerical abuse and failed to inform police of offences over a period of more than three decades.
The prelate, speaking shortly after the Vatican announcement, "humbly" apologized for his role in the scandal but said even his resignation "cannot undo the pain" of those who suffered.
Other senior church officials, including four archbishops cited in the report, face growing pressure to resign.
One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another confessed that he had abused children on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.
Murray told his congregation in Limerick, southwest Ireland, that he had asked to quit because he believed his "presence will create difficulties for some of the survivors."
According to a statement released by his office, Murray said: "I know full well that my resignation cannot undo the pain that survivors of abuse have suffered in the past and continue to suffer each day. I humbly apologise once again to all who were abused as little children."
He added: "To all survivors of abuse, I repeat that my primary concern is to assist in every way that I can on their journey towards finding closure and serenity.
"A bishop is meant to be a person who seeks to lead and inspire all the people of the diocese in living as a community united in the truth and love of Christ," he told the congregation.
The pope met last week with Ireland's two most senior Roman Catholic churchmen, primate of all-Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady and Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the participants did not discuss whether any of those implicated in the scandal should resign.
But Martin told reporters afterward: "We will need a very significant reorganization of the Church in Ireland."
The pope apologised for the abuse, saying he "shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland (over) these heinous crimes".
The Vatican statement last Friday said the Church "will continue to follow this grave matter with the closest attention in order to understand better how these shameful events came to pass and how best to develop effective and secure strategies to prevent any recurrence."
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