Vatican to Irish bishops: admit blame

But the former Dublin altar boy who helped expose the scandal doubted that any real hierarchy housekeeping would result from the two days of talks behind closed doors in the Apostolic Palace.

Benedict's top aide, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, delivered a stinging homily at a Mass before the talks decrying the "particularly abhorrent deeds" of some in the Irish church hierarchy, although he didn't name any names.

Bertone, the Vatican's No. 2 who participated in the summit with 24 bishops from Irish dioceses, likened the crisis to a "most dangerous storm, that which touches the heart of believers, shaking their faith and threatening their ability to trust in God."

To restore faith, "sinners must acknowledge their own blame in the fullness of truth," urged Bertone, the Holy See's secretary of state. He worried that the evil could push faithful toward "discouragement and desperation."

A state report last year found that church leaders in Dublin had spent decades protecting child-abusing priests from the law while many fellow clerics pretended not to see. A separate inquiry documented decades of sexual, physical and psychological abuse or children and teens in Catholic-run schools, workhouses and orphanages.