Pope Benedict XVI urged Irish clergy to be courageous in confronting the paedophile priest scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, but took no action on victims’ demands that he force top bishops to resign, the Vatican said.

The Pope’s Ambassador to Ireland today said the Vatican was ashamed by the devastating findings of a damning inquiry into clerical sex abuse in Dublin.

Papal nuncio Archbishop Guiseppe Leanza has been asked to attend a meeting with the Foreign Affairs minister Micheál Martin at Iveagh house next week.

A VATICAN diplomat who has served in some of the most violent situations in the world is the Holy See’s new representative in Ireland.