The Vatican replaced Cardinal Desmond Connell as the archbishop of Dublin on Monday after years of criticism that he didn't do enough to stop sexual abuse by priests. Pope John Paul II announced Monday in Vatican City that Diarmuid Martin, the coadjutor archbishop of Dublin, had succeeded Connell as leader of the archdiocese's nearly 1.1 million Catholics.
The pope's statement said Connell's resignation — originally offered in 2001 — had now been accepted because of his age.
Pressure had been mounting on Connell, 78, to quit ever since the Irish television network RTE broadcast an October 2002 documentary into the scope of abuse cases within the country's largest archdiocese.
The program accused Connell of using church funds to provide a confidential $50,000 loan to Ivan Payne, a priest who then used the money to buy the silence of an alleged abuse victim.
The documentary said archdiocese leaders were facing more than 450 lawsuits from alleged victims, and had long been aware of a pedophile ring in the diocese involving eight priests, including Payne.
The program accused the cardinal of demonstrating little sympathy for abuse victims.
On Monday, Connell cast his impending retirement in a positive light, making no reference to the sex abuse scandal.
"I am greatly looking forward to retirement," Connell told reporters in Dublin, Martin at his side. "There will be a period of adjustment, but it will be good to have time to spend with family and friends, and to catch up on my reading."
Connell has long been one of the church's most prominent theologians. Before his appointment as archbishop in 1988, he served as a professor of metaphysics at University College Dublin.
As archbishop he denounced contraception, divorce, abortion and homosexual relationships. He proved ill at ease with the media and demonstrated little diplomatic skill, sometimes clashing with leaders of Ireland's major Protestant denomination, the Church of Ireland.
Martin, in contrast, is a media-savvy veteran Vatican bureaucrat and diplomat who previously served as the pope's permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva. Since being appointed to his Dublin post last year, the 59-year-old had been seen as Connell's heir apparent.
Connell, who first offered a public apology for his handling of abuse allegations immediately following the RTE program, hinted at his imminent departure as archbishop in an April 8 sermon at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. He will remain as Ireland's only current cardinal.
"The confession of sin is better made in the silence of the heart than spoken aloud," Connell said in his sermon.
"But I ask pardon of all whom I have offended, especially of those who suffered unspeakable abuse by priests of the diocese and experienced a lack of the care that ought to have been provided," he said. "I can only hope that the steps now taken will ensure that the future will see no repetition of what happened in the past."
Martin said Monday that Connell had done his best to deal with the tide of abuse allegations that in the 1990s hit the church in Dublin, as well as throughout Ireland and in several other western countries.
"He suffered out of his own sensitivity in conscience, and care for priests," Martin said, "but also his care and his sadness, and almost horror, at the stories of abuse that he had to listen to and encounter.
"That was not an easy task for him, and he acted very much in accordance with his conscience in a difficult period. I think history will recognize that very much," Martin said.
Connell originally offered his resignation in a letter to the pope on March 24, 2001, his 75th birthday. The Vatican considers 75 the normal retirement age for bishops, but the pope often leaves prelates in their posts for several years after that.
The Dublin archdiocese, which includes all of County Dublin and parts of five other counties, is one of the largest in Europe.