A Florida bishop, originally from Co Clare, has resigned after allegations of sexual abuse involving a seminary student 25 years ago.
Roman Catholic Bishop of West Palm Beach in Florida Anthony J O'Connell told a news conference there: "My heart bleeds for Chris Dixon. I was a wrong as can be."
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O'Connell pictured on the
Palm Beach Diocese website |
However the former bishop maintains no abuse took place.
Sixty-three-year-old O'Connell is originally from Lisheen, Ballynacally, Co Clare. He went to the US to study the priesthood in 1959 and was ordained in St Louis, Missouri, in 1963.
His resignation came just hours after the 10 Roman Catholic bishops in the state of Florida, including O'Connell, issued a statement condemning sexual abuse by clergy members.
O'Connell's resignation was the latest in a series of disclosures that have rocked the US Roman Catholic community in the aftermath of a sexual abuse scandal in Boston. The Catholic Diocese there has relieved 10 priests of their duties and handed the names of 80 others to state prosecutors.
The charges against O'Connell were first aired earlier this week in St Louis, Missouri, by Mr Christopher Dixon, a former priest who studied under O'Connell at a Missouri seminary in the late 1970s.
Mr Dixon, now 40, said he had gone to O'Connell for counseling.
O'Connell came to Palm Beach in 1999, to replace Bishop J Keith Symons, the first US bishop to resign over charges of sexual abuse of young boys.
Mr Dixon's own career in the priesthood was cut short in 1995 by clinical depression. In 1996, he accused two Missouri priests of abusing him as a youth.
Missouri church authorities, without admitting the allegations, secretly paid Mr Dixon $125,000 in return for a promise not to press charges, though both priests were later dismissed from the church.
O'Connell's resignation request will be forwarded to the Vatican which will decided whether to accept it.
addional reporting AFP
