DUBLIN, Ireland - The senior Roman Catholic in Ireland apologized to worshippers Sunday for his church's neglect of victims of sexual abuse by priests and other church figures.
Cardinal Desmond Connell asked for forgiveness in a letter read by priests at all Masses in Dublin, capital of this predominantly Catholic nation. It was the latest effort in recent months by Catholic leaders in Ireland to restore public faith after sex-abuse scandals pummeled the church's moral standing worldwide.
Connell, who has been accused by victims of being unsympathetic to their experiences, said he and other leaders were slow to appreciate the magnitude of the scandal. "I deeply regret the mistakes I have made in seeking to come to grips with the problem," he wrote.
In Ireland, scores of priests and brothers have been convicted of abusing children. The first major abuse case exposed in 1994 triggered the collapse of an Irish government.
The church in January pledged to contribute 130 million euros (US$130 million) to a government-run compensation fund for victims. The church and government this summer established separate probes into the extent of past abuse and its alleged coverup by bishops.
Connell was heavily criticized earlier this year on Ireland's top evening talk show, "The Late Late Show." One victim accused him of rebuffing her complaints in the mid-1990s when she told him a priest had molested and threatened her when she was a child in a hospital bed in 1965.
"Further scandal has undoubtedly been caused by the fact that, having approached the church in expectation of the best possible care and the most sympathetic response, some people suffered further hurt," Connell wrote.
"I want to apologize again from my heart for the terrible betrayal they have suffered," he wrote. "I do so in my own name, with a keen sense of our failures to deal more adequately with the problem."