The One in Four group said tonight it was satisfied by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's explanation of his controversial comments on the Catholic Church.
The group met with the Taoiseach, his advisers and Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan for a lengthy discussion at Government Buildings.
Its director Colm O'Gorman said he had been concerned that Mr Ahern was somehow defending the failure of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to respond to clerical sex abuse in the Ferns diocese.
"He made it clear that his intention was always to communicate both a sense of disappointment and betrayal, not just in relation to clerical sexual abuse, but the failure to prevent that abuse once people had been properly alerted to it. And we welcome that clarification," he said.
Mr Ahern made his comments in the Dail last week while responding to Progressive Democrats TD Liz O'Donnell, who demanded the severing of the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church. He has claimed since that the comments were misinterpreted by people.
Mr O'Gorman said the meeting had been amicable, constructive and helpful. "We hope that now that issue has been dealt with and we can move on and have a more mature, both public and political debate, on these issues," he said.
The Ferns Inquiry found that more than 20 priests had sexually abused young boys and girls in parishes in Co Wexford during the past 40 years.
One in Four was strongly critical of the role of the church authorities and referred to the report's finding that since 1962, the Vatican had operated an international policy that swore all those with knowledge of clerical sexual abuse to absolute secrecy under threat of ex-communication.
But Mr O'Gorman said this criticism in no way disrespected the value of the work carried out by individual members of the Catholic Church.
"To suggest that a hierarchy failed, that a system failed, in now way suggests that everyone working in that system is responsible for that failure."
He said Mr Ahern had pledged to support One in Four's efforts to get the Ferns Inquiry report debated by the Joint Oireachtas committees on Health, Education and Justice committees. "A 278-page report is never going to be fully examined in one 24-hour news cycle or in a six-hour session in the Dail," he said. ends