A shamed former bishop at the centre of a major clerical abuse scandal
has begged for forgiveness for failing to protect children and
investigate paedophile priests.
Under immense pressure to speak out
over his lack of interest in exposing abuse, one-time Vatican aide John
Magee said he was ashamed people had suffered under his watch.
"I
fully understand why they are angry - I let them down, by not fully
implementing the guidelines which were available to me," he said. "I
deeply, deeply regret not ensuring that the guidelines, which were my
responsibility to implement, were not complied with and I ask for
forgiveness for the way in which I have carried out this critically
important aspect of my work."
The ex-bishop fled Ireland in the wake of a damning report into his dangerous child protection actions in the Cloyne Diocese.
He effectively ignored guidelines - agreed by bishops in 1996 to keep youngsters safe - as recently as three years ago.
An
inquiry into allegations found his clerical leadership on abuse
allegations had been marked by inertia.
He was singled out for
deliberately misleading authorities about internal inquiries into
children's claims that priests were abusing them.
Magee, who lives
in Mitchelstown in the Cork diocese, offered to meet victims privately.
But he also warned that nothing he can say will ease their pain and
distress.
Reiterating a statement he issued in the wake of the
Cloyne report earlier this summer, he said he took full responsibility
for the diocesan failures to manage effectively allegations of child
sexual abuse and he repeated his apology to victims first made in Cobh
Cathedral on Christmas Eve in 2008.
Newry-born Magee, a former
papal envoy, insisted that he had not been aware of the full extent of
the failure to protect children and expose paedophile priests until the
report was published.
"I also take this opportunity to say that I
let the many good priests of the Diocese down," he said.
"So many
priests do such good work and by not addressing the issues which
confronted me I made their important work more difficult. I also want to
apologise to the people of the Diocese for not managing this important
work more effectively."