Pope urged to force bishops to quit over abuse ‘cover-up’

SURVIVORS of clerical sex abuse have called on the Pope to force the resignation of bishops they say did nothing to challenge “the culture of cover up”.

Yesterday, a group representing survivors of clerical abuse, met Irish bishops in advance of their visit to Rome next week for an emergency meeting at which the fallout from the Murphy Report into the rape and abuse of 320 children by 46 priests in the Dublin Archdiocese will be top of the agenda.

“Today’s meeting was constructive and helpful to us... The meeting focused on the ongoing concerns of survivors. We intend to relay these concerns to Pope Benedict both verbally and in the form of written submissions which were presented to us today by survivors and which directly represent their views,” Dromore Bishop John McAreavey said in Maynooth yesterday.