Fallout from the Catholic child sex abuse scandal spread across Europe on Thursday as the Vatican retired an Irish bishop, a German offered to step down and prelates in England and Wales apologised for the "terrible crimes" of priests. The Vatican said Pope Benedict, under criticism from victims for not doing enough about past cases of abuse by priests now being revealed, had accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty, the third Irish bishop to leave over the scandal.
In Germany, Walter Mixa, who is bishop for Augsburg and for the German armed forces, offered to resign late on Wednesday after admitting he physically abused children decades ago.
Bishops in England and Wales issued an apology for the scandal and urged Catholics there to pray for the Church.
Moriarty said in a statement that he was auxiliary bishop of Dublin from 1991 to 2002, before child protection policies were implemented.
"I accept that from the time I became an auxiliary bishop, I should have challenged the prevailing culture," he said. "I apologise to all survivors and their families."
Hundreds of cases of sexual and physical abuse of youths in recent decades by priests have come to light in Europe and the United States in the last month as disclosures encourage long-silent victims to finally go public with their complaints.
MORE TO COME IN IRELAND?
Moriarty was the second of four Irish bishops retired by the Vatican after being named in an official report last year as Church leaders who hid predator priests. Two others have offered their resignations but Rome has not yet decided their cases.
Bishop John Magee, a former personal secretary to the past three popes, had his resignation letter accepted last month after he was accused in a separate Church report of mishandling sex abuse cases in his diocese of Cloyne.
There have been growing calls for the head of the Irish Church, Cardinal Sean Brady, to quit over his role in covering up a sexual abuse case in 1975. He has not offered to resign.
Mixa, an outspoken conservative bishop, was accused of slapping and hitting children while he was a parish priest in a small town in the pope's native Bavaria the 1970s and 1980s.
He was not accused of sexual abuse, but his admission of slapping children after weeks of denials prompted calls for him to quit. Mixa also faces allegations of financial misconduct.
"With his resignation, he wants to avert further damage to the Church and to allow a new start," the Augsburg diocese said in a statement. The Vatican has not yet responded.
Catholic bishops in England and Wales said child abuse in the Church had received so much attention recently that they wanted to address the issue "directly and unambiguously."
"We express our heartfelt apology and deep sorrow to those who have suffered abuse, those who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed," they said in a statement.
The bishops said Catholics belonged to a single Church worldwide, so "these terrible crimes, and the inadequate response by some church leaders, grieve us all."
SCANDALS STAY IN HEADLINES
The Church in England and Wales had a wave of abuse scandals about 20 years ago and reforms have since been introduced.
The scandal haunting the Catholic Church worldwide looks set to stay in the headlines for weeks to come.
In Germany, government-sponsored "round table talks" will open in Berlin on Friday to investigate child abuse in Catholic, Protestant and secular schools. A Catholic Church hotline for abuse victims there has been inundated with calls.
An inquiry run by a Protestant politician in the Netherlands is probing abuse cases in Catholics schools there. Rotterdam Bishop Adrianus van Luyn, head of the Dutch bishops' conference, has come under fire after admitting he knew of abuse cases in his Salesian order back in the late 1970s.
A retired senior Vatican prelate, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, has caused another controversy by saying a recently published letter he wrote in 2001 congratulating a French bishop for hiding a predator priest was written with the blessing of the late Pope John Paul.
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