Abuse scandal threatens to topple Dublin's cardinal

The head of the Catholic church in the Irish Republic may become the next high-profile casualty of a crisis generated by the cover-up of clerical sex abuse that has rocked the church worldwide.

Cardinal Desmond Connell, the Archbishop of Dublin, travels to Rome tomorrow, where the Vatican may clear the way for him to stand down in weeks.

Clamour for the cardinal's resignation has become difficult for the Vatican to ignore as the number of Irish abuse victims prepared to go public continues to grow. Dublin is now being compared to Boston, where one of the US church's most senior figures, Cardinal Bernard Law, was forced to resign in disgrace last year. In both cities, the most damaging accusation is that top churchmen either failed to act on complaints of abuse or covered up to protect accused priests.

Cardinal Connell, who is now co-operating with a police investigation into the alleged sheltering of paedophiles in his diocese, was forced to make an unprecedented apology in a Dublin court last month to a former altar boy, for the way he dealt with his case. Mervyn Rundle won the biggest single cash settlement of its kind – €345,000 (£230,000) – for abuse he endured 18 years ago.

The focus of public anger in cases such as Mr Rundle's is the 76-year-old cardinal's apparent inability to understand what church leaders did wrong. Challenged by a television reporter on why he failed to encourage victims of Fr Sean Fortune, a child rapist who later committed suicide, to go to the police, he said: "I suppose I should have done ... but I had so much else to do."

In recent days, it has also been revealed that most Irish dioceses took out insurance against sex-abuse claims as long ago as 1987. Colm O'Gorman, one of Fr Fortune's victims, said the disclosure showed "the Catholic Church callously acted in the face of such clear knowledge of clerical abuse to protect its financial wealth". John Kelly, another abuse victim, said the cardinal had "lost all moral authority to continue in office".

Cardinal Connell tendered his resignation at 75, as expected of all Catholic bishops. But the Pope asked him to stay. A spokesperson said yesterday that reports of his imminent resignation were "purely speculative".

The Irish parliament is to open an inquiry into a secret church-state sex-abuse compensation deal announced in June. Under that deal, leaders of 18 Catholic religious orders would be indemnified against future damages claims by victims of abuse, in return for a financial contribution of €128m. But, alarmed at the potential bill faced by the Irish taxpayer – some 5,000 victims are expected to lodge claims – members of parliament now want to investigate the Irish church's wealth. An explosion in the value of Irish property means the church is sitting on assets worth hundreds of millions of euros.