An Irish bishop resigned amid a Catholic church sex abuse scandal, apologizing in a statement Wednesday for any abuse that occurred in his diocese.
Bishop John Magee of the diocese of Cloyne said he tendered his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI on March 9.
"I have been informed today that it has been accepted, and as I depart, I want to offer once again my sincere apologies to any person who has been abused by any priest of the Diocese of Cloyne during my time as bishop or at any time," Magee said in a statement posted on the diocese Web site.
"To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon."
Five Irish bishops have tendered their resignations since December in relation to the scandal, according to Martin Long, spokesman for the Irish Bishops' Conference. The Vatican has now accepted two of them - that of Bishop Donald Murray on December 17, and Magee's.
- CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, or should it say post the first selfserving comment.
I don't blame blame him or the pope. I blame the people that still walk into these churches and put money in a basket that funds these pedophiles!
Catholics, don't be disheartened with your faith. The Holy Spirit is housecleaning.
God is still present in every aspect of the roman catholic church. He is purifying the
church He founded.
How about instead of a nice pension he is tried for conspiracy to conceal child rape and is jailed along with all the other vile hypocrites in this revolting institution, up to and including Herr. Ratzenburger. In related news the bishop in Portland, ME has withdrawn fund from a homeless shelter there because the shelter was opposed to the referndum in Maine that repealed the right of same sex couples to marry there. These people are unbounded in their hypocrisy, hatred and perversion!
The issue that bothers me is that PARENTS were willing to sign an oath of secrecy vowing to never tell authorities that their child was sexually abused! For the abused child the complicity of the parents must have been nearly as bad as the priest's offense against them.
Shall we good Christians forgive these priests?
Uh...how about some jail time ?
What about the Archbishop of Munich and Freising back in the 1980's? That guy allowed pedophiles to keep abusing children, and then issued orders to cover everything up. Later on, he led investigations into abuse, and concluded that the media was blowing things out of proportion.
Shouldn't something be done about him? Oh yeah, that's right. They made him Pope.
The world and the church needs to wake up now. Abuse is nothing new. It has gone on for centuries. The only thing that has changed is our access and outrage to greater and greater amounts of information. As an abused "altar boy" from the sixties, it has not ruined my life, but indeed has ruined my relationship with and trust for the church. There are very few in charge whose hands are clean. Abuse for children is endemic problem within the church. I am not sure that a few statements of outrage from the pope or his bishops will ever change what is an inherent evil.
This business should be shut down for good.
They may have resigned their position but they are still on the church payroll. The big question is do they still expect the parishioners to cough up with the settlement money since they are supposedly out of funds? That's nearly as much of a crime and outrage as the abuse. The Vatican needs to sell a couple of pieces of artwork. But that's probably more precious than the ruined lives.
Clearly this has been an accepted part of the church hierarchy for untold generations, and one they've kept buried as long as they could.
Any religion that preys upon it's followers isn't a religion.
Put them in jail.
Can't seem to find the word celibacy or celibate in a word search of the Bible. Seems kinda backward that God told Adam that man must leave his parents and cleave unto his wife, and here we have men cleaving unto little boys (pedophilia and homosexuality).
I think they need to read the scriptures more and get off their high horses and donations.
If the Catholic church came clean with all the pedophile priests they are hiding the church would go broke from all the lawsuits.
Roman Catholic children were preyed upon. Bishops covered it up. Roman Catholics demand prosecution of both priests and their bishops.