Cardinal Desmond Connell was heckled last night as he made a personal speech to a congregation in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral.
The Cardinal was jeered as he repeated an earlier apology over his "failure to deal effectively" with priests who abused children.
He repeated the statement while celebrating a mass to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II.
A spokesman for Cardinal Connell confirmed there were calls of "too late" from worshippers at the 6 p.m. mass.
The Cardinal has faced calls to resign after RTE screened a television programme which reported that the Dublin Archdiocese faced 450 legal actions as a result of claims of clerical sex abuse.
The programme detailed accounts of cases of abuse by eight priests of which it said at least six bishops became aware.
After the broadcast Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, a group representing victims of clerical sexual abuse, called on Cardinal Connell to resign over his handling of the allegations.
The group said the Cardinal's position was now "untenable", and that the programme proved what victims "had been saying for years" - that there had been collusion at the highest level in the Catholic Church.
PA
