Pope accepts Irish bishop's resignation

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Irish Bishop John Magee, who has been accused of mishandling complaints of sex abuse in his diocese, the Vatican confirmed Wednesday.

Magee, 73, was appointed bishop of the diocese of Cloyne in southern Ireland in 1987. He tendered his resignation earlier in March, according to a statement published on the diocese's website.

Three Irish government-ordered investigations published from 2005 to 2009 have documented how thousands of Irish children suffered rape, molestation and other abuse by priests in their parishes and by nuns and brothers in boarding schools and orphanages.

Irish bishops did not report a single case to police until 1996, after victims began to sue the church.

"To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon," Magee said in the statement.

Benedict released a letter last Saturday apologizing for years of physical and sexual abuse suffered by Irish children at the hands of priests.

3 bishops offer to resign

The Pope also has yet to accept resignation offers from three other Irish bishops who were linked to coverups of child-abuse cases in the Dublin archdiocese, the subject of a major government-ordered investigation that published its findings four months ago.

Magee, however, had been expected to resign ever since a Catholic Church-commissioned investigation into the mishandling of child-abuse reports in Cloyne found two years ago that Magee and his senior diocesan aides failed to tell police quickly about abuse cases in the 1990s.

The church and government suppressed publication of that report's findings until December 2008, when Magee faced immediate calls to quit from victims' rights activists and some parishioners.

In the online statement, Magee said he accepts "full responsibility" for criticism of his diocese's management of the abuse issues.

Magee remained bishop of the diocese of Cloyne in name but handed over day-to-day responsibilities to his superior, Archbishop Dermot Clifford, in March 2009.

Ireland's senior Catholic Church cardinal offered an apology earlier in March for his handling of a case involving an abusive priest decades ago.