The envoy arrived in Ireland as a new survey of public attitudes revealed a rapid decline in public confidence. The poll, for the Institute of Advertising in Ireland, found that 75 per cent of people now have "mixed, little, or no confidence" in church leaders.
This represents a 17 per cent fall in confidence compared with a similar poll four years ago. Just 25 per cent expressed confidence compared with 42 per cent in 1991. The survey research was carried out in April before the latest scandals broke.
Cardinal Cahal Daly, Catholic Primate of All Ireland, last night offered "the most abject and most humble apology" to victims of abuse - and spoke of the church's atonement, penance and humility.
The Cardinal highlighted "wave after wave of scandal, crashing and breaking against the Church" in an address at Letterkenny, Co Donegal. "When stories or allegations of abuse by some clerics come to attention, we must not be afraid of the truth.
"Truth can hurt, but it can also heal. It can give some measure of healing to victims, for whom long silence has been paralysing; even to abusers, whose lives have been accompanied by the long shadow of a guilty secret," he said.
The Vatican envoy, Archbishop Jorge Mejia, an experienced church troubleshooter, yesterday met Cardinal Daly. He is to report back to Pope John Paul on the spate of clerical sex abuse claims and prosecutions, and is also expected to inquire into other highly publicised setbacks for the Church involving the conduct of some of its most senior prelates.
Last week, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, a noted pro- Vatican conservative, was shown to have made conflicting statements on whether the Church paid money towards compensating clerical sex abuse victims.
A Dublin newspaper yesterday claimed that the Church sought a verbal commitment to silence from a former altar boy paid Irpounds 27,500 (pounds 28,000) in an out-of-court settlement in 1993. The payment arose from a series of alleged sex assaults by a north Dublin curate between 1977 and 1980, now being investigated by police.
It emerged the curate had earlier been chaplain at a Dublin children's hospital.
Church sources have also admitted that a senior bishop took a series of expensive holidays in Thailand. It has been claimed Bishop Brendan Comiskey was detained in police cells in Bangkok after arriving there last October drunk and without a passport.
Gardai say the bishop declined to assist inquiries into sex abuse in his diocese. He is currently undergoing treatment for alcoholism in the US. Bishop Comiskey was recently summoned to Rome to explain his demands for a public debate on the policy of priestly celibacy.
Since 1993, a series of priests have been jailed for sex offences. In recent months, priests from Wexford, in the south- east, to Londonderry in the north-west have appeared in court facing sex abuse charges.
On Saturday it emerged that gardai are investigating claims that more than a dozen former pupils at St Joseph's reform school and orphanage in Lower Salthill, Galway, were sexually and physically abused by three members of the Catholic Christian Brothers order. Similar inquiries have been taking place at nine other child-care centres around the country.
Last week, the former housekeeper of a prominent Dublin Catholic priest and broadcaster, Father Michael Cleary, publicly a staunch pro-Vatican moral conservative, confirmed he had fathered two sons with her. Phyllis Hamilton said soon after the birth of her first son, she returned home to find the priest in bed with another unmarried mother, to whom he was giving counselling.
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