South Florida bishop resigns after admitting sexual abuse

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (CNN) -- The Catholic bishop of Palm Beach announced his resignation Friday after admitting he sexually abused a seminary student more than 25 years ago, calling the abuse "extremely ill-advised and naive."

"It always hung over me," Bishop Anthony O' Connell, 63, told reporters. "I don't think I've ever preached without being conscious of it, and especially in these recent times. I certainly have been powerfully motivated in my preaching and in my spirituality for having been so stupid and so foolish at the time."

The abuse took place in the late 1970s, while O' Connell was principal of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Missouri, a post he held for nearly 20 years.

"What I was trying to do was to work with a youngster who had personal issues to deal with," he said.

"Foolishly and stupidly and naively, I attempted to work with him to help him to deal with his problems in ways ... without any of the new light that we have today with regard to sexual abuse," said O' Connell.

"It still doesn't change the naivety and the stupidity and the misguidancy," he said. "Could I change all of that, I would change it in a minute for his sake as well as for mine."

O' Connell left the seminary in 1988 when he was ordained bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee. He stayed until 1998, when he was appointed bishop of Palm Beach.

The archbishop of Miami issued a statement Friday saying he is "profoundly saddened" by the news.

"My heart goes out to Bishop O' Connell who has served the church so dedicatedly, even though the harm of this scandal cannot be minimized," said Archbishop John Favalora. "I am deeply grieved by the grave injury that clerical sex abuse inflicts on individuals, the church and society."

O' Connell admitted to the sexual abuse in an interview Thursday with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The newspaper contacted him about allegations made by Christopher Dixon, the former student, that O' Connell touched him inappropriately in bed after Dixon sought his counsel.

"Yes," O' Connell told the paper. "I would say that I was extremely ill-advised and naive in that approach. I have thoroughly regretted it, and I apologized to him when he made his complaint."

O' Connell was among those who signed a statement, issued Thursday from The Catholic Bishops of Florida, on "concern and compassion for victims of sexual abuse."

Deacon Sam Barbaro, a spokesman for the Palm Beach Diocese, said the statement addressed recent allegations of sexual abuse by priests -- including the case of a defrocked priest in Boston. He said the timing was coincidental and "certainly very dreadful."

The same Palm Beach diocese faced a similar scandal in 1998, when Bishop J. Keith Symons resigned after admitting he sexually molested five boys nearly 40 years earlier. O' Connell was appointed to fill Symons' position.

"My heart goes out to the clergy, religious and good people of the Diocese of Palm Beach, who for another time must endure the pain of scandal and disappointment," said Favalora. "The breach of trust between the clergy and their people wounds the body of the church irreparably."

O' Connell will remain bishop until the Vatican formally accepts his resignation, Barbaro said.

"He is taking some time off, obviously," he said. "He's going to go to a quiet place, as Jesus did, and try to reflect and pray."