Pope accepts bishop's resignation

DUBLIN, Repubic of Ireland -- Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of one of the Republic of Ireland's most senior clerics amid criticism over his handling of child sex abuse allegations against a priest who committed suicide.

The Bishop of Ferns, Dr. Brendan Comiskey, announced his decision to quit earlier this week after the British Broadcasting Corporation showed a TV documentary about the case of Father Sean Fortune, who died in 1999 before his trial on sex charges.

Following the broadcast, the Irish government said there would be a formal inquiry into sex abuse charges against members of the priesthood.

On Saturday, the Vatican's daily bulletin said: "Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation from the pastoral government of the diocese of Ferns (Ireland) presented by Monsignor Brendan Oliver Comiskey."

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The statement confirming Comiskey's resignation also reported the temporary appointment of Dr. Eamonn Walsh, an auxiliary bishop of Dublin, as apostolic administrator of the Ferns diocese.

Comiskey, 66, apologised for not doing enough to halt the trail of abuse perpetrated by Fortune, who committed suicide in 1999 shortly before he was to stand trial on 66 criminal counts of sexually abusing boys for nearly two decades.

'I ask forgiveness'

The bishop announced his resignation on Monday following mounting criticism of the way he dealt with the allegations.

He told a press conference: "I found Father Fortune virtually impossible to deal with. I confronted him regularly; for a time I removed him from ministry.

"I sought professional advice in several quarters, I listened to criticisms and praises, I tried compassion and I tried firmness. Treatment was sought and arranged.

"And yet I never managed to achieve any level of satisfactory outcome," he said, adding, "I should have adopted a more informed and more concerted effort in my dealings with him, and for this I ask forgiveness."

"The sexual abuse of children is deeply abhorrent to me," he said. "I apologise also to the families of victims and to all others who have been offended or hurt in different ways by Father Sean Fortune."

Fortune's victims have said they want the Irish government to mount a wider inquiry and, potentially, to seek criminal charges against Comiskey and others who allegedly protected abusers.

One of Fortune's accusers, Colm O'Gorman, said he and five others would press ahead with a civil lawsuit naming Comiskey and the pope as defendants.

Comiskey, who was ordained in 1961 and was auxiliary bishop for Dublin in 1980 before becaming bishop of Ferns, is the third Catholic bishop to step down amid a series of sex-abuse cases rocking the Church.

Juliusz Paetz of Poznan stepped down late last month amid accusations he made sexual advances on young clerics in Poland, while in the United States, Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell resigned in March from the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida, admitting he sexually abused a former seminarian in the 1970s.