At his ordination as Bishop of Killala yesterday, the newest member of the Irish Hierarchy, Bishop John Fleming, said the church apologised for the pain caused to victims of clerical abuse.
Bishop Fleming referred only briefly to the controversies over clerical abuse at his installation ceremony in St Muredach's Cathedral, Ballina.
"Recent days in Ireland have made us even more aware of the pain caused to victims of abuse by the betrayal of trust," he said. "For this as a church we apologise."
The new bishop, spiritual leader of a diocese which comprises 22 parishes in north Mayo and west Sligo, suggested to the congregation that if as a community of faith they were to hand on their faith and their Christian culture to future generations they needed to approach these issues with the spirit of the Prophet Micah where, supporting each other, they "acted justly, loved tenderly and walked humbly with our God".
Bishop Fleming, former rector of the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, was not available for interview yesterday. Father Brendan Hoban of the Killala Diocesan Communications Office told reporters that this was normal on episcopal ordination day due to the ordination and the bishop's many duties subsequent to it.
In his address, Bishop Fleming said: "The pace at which we live our lives nowadays is not only undermining the security of our lives at a physical level but it is also endangering us at a spiritual as well as a cultural level".
Bishop Fleming, a native of Ardpatrick, Co Limerick, paid tribute to his predecessor, Bishop Thomas Finnegan, who submitted his resignation to the Pope in August upon reaching his 75th birthday.
The principal celebrants of the episcopal ordination Mass were the Most Rev Michael Neary, Archbishop of Tuam; the Most Rev Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh; and the retiring Bishop of Killala, the Very Rev Thomas Finnegan.