A Co Antrim priest has called on Cardinal Desmond Connell to resign over his handling of child sex abuse by priests.
Fr Patrick McCafferty stated publicly the Cardinal and other senior bishops were "not fit to lead the people of God" and should follow the lead of Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, who resigned last week.
Fr McCafferty, who is a priest based in Lisburn, accused church leaders of being "guilty of the most stunning arrogance and breathtaking indifference to real human anguish" in an open letter to today's issue of the Irish News.
He said the Catholic Church had shown "wicked contempt" for survivors of clerical abuse. When he had tried to highlight it through the pulpit he had been regarded as a troublemaker by certain ecclesiastical grandees, he said, but had refused to be influenced.
"These men, who moved paedophiles around from parish to parish, who later on refused to listen to stories of immense and incalculable harm visited upon little ones, have absolutely no excuse. I hope they resign now," he said.
Addressing himself to the Cardinal, Fr McCafferty said: "Ultimately this is a matter for his own conscience, but I have stated clearly that I hope they all resign. They should all take their cue from Bernard Law".
But Mr Colm O'Gorman, director of victims group One in Four, said resignation solved nothing. "People say the honourable thing is to resign. There is nothing honourable about resignation. You are only deflecting the issue and don't take things forward."
He said he had no doubt Cardinal Connell had "serious questions to answer"."Resignation doesn't acknowledge the institutional church has been involved in a cover-up and that will not be acknowledged through resignation," Mr O'Gorman said. PA