Pope tells Irish bishops to show courage

Pope Benedict XVI urged Irish clergy to be courageous in confronting the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked the church, but took no action on victims' demands that he force bishops to resign, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The Vatican statement came as the pope and 24 Irish bishops ended an extraordinary meeting on the crisis meant to restore the trust of Irish Catholics shaken by revelations of decades of clergy sex abuse and cover-up.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said following the summit that the pope "shares the outrage" over the abuse and noted he had "already expressed profound regret."

Asked if the issue of resignations came up, Lombardi said "it was not addressed."

Lombardi also defended the pope's representative in Ireland for refusing to testify to lawmakers there about systematic covers-up by church hierarchy.

A Vatican statement said the pope called the sexual abuse of children "a heinous crime" and a "grave sin which offends God."

Irish bishops scheduled a news conference for later Tuesday before they head back to Ireland before Ash Wednesday church services.

During the two-day summit behind closed doors at the Vatican, anger flared in Ireland over the refusal of papal envoy Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza to appear in the Irish parliament.

Leanza, who participated in the summit, told lawmakers in a letter published Monday he would not answer questions from the foreign affairs committee.

"I wish to inform that it is not the practice of the Holy See that apostolic nuncios appear before parliamentary commissions," he wrote in the letter dated Feb. 12.

Leanza has faced heavy criticism in Ireland for ignoring letters from two state-ordered investigations into how the church suppressed reports of child abuse by parish priests and in Catholic-run residences for poor children.

Lombardi said Leanza, as a diplomat, "has to respond to rules" about diplomatic privilege. "If this is not part of his duty, you can't expect him" to testify, the Vatican spokesman told an improvised news conference minutes after the summit ended.

Irish lawmaker Alan Shatter expressed dismay over Leanza's refusal, saying that "it is acknowledged in Rome that members of the clergy in Ireland are guilty of abominable sexual abuse of children."