Vatican summons Irish bishops over pedophilia

The pontiff is expected to sketch a way forward for unspecified senior clerics during a two-day meeting in mid-February. This is in the wake of an earlier Irish government report that implicated a number of priests for involvement in pedophilia. They were members of the Dublin archdiocese, Ireland’s most important and populated Catholic Church.

In the government description of the sex scandal, one priest was depicted as ‘’sexually molesting tens of children committed to the church,” while another was charged with sexual enslavement of children for around 30 years. Both priests admitted to the charges.

Meanwhile, church authorities have been admonished for covering up the decades-long abuse of altar children.

The indignity of the abuse created outrage in Ireland and sparked a crisis of confidence in church leadership.

Irish bishops met on Friday to discuss the child molestation case.

Earlier, Dublin Archbishop Martin blasted the ‘criminal behaviour’ of the priests and called for the prosecution of the arraigned clergymen, noting, “No words of apology will ever be enough for the hurt caused.”