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	Pope Accepts Abuse Scandal Irish Prelate's Resignation Asia One May 31, 2010 http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20100531-219440.html VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Monday accepted the resignation of Irish prelate Richard Anthony Burke, archbishop of the Nigerian diocese of Benin City, accused of molesting a teenaged girl, the Vatican said. Burke, in a statement to the weekly Irish Catholic, voiced "deepest sorrow for my inappropriate, irresponsible and repeatedly sinful conduct," but denied having abused a minor. "I take full responsibility for my actions. I wish to express my deepest sorrow for my inappropriate, irresponsible and repeatedly sinful conduct," he wrote. "The reason for my resignation is that I have been unfaithful to my oath of celibacy," he said, adding that his relationship with Dolores Atwood began when she was 21 and he was 40. Atwood lodged a complaint against Burke saying that he had begun abusing her when she was a 14-year-old patient in a hospital and that she later had a relationship with him. "I have never, ever, in my life - in any way - sexually abused a child. This is still my position. It is the truth," Burke said. An investigation carried out by St. Patrick's Missionary Society, of which Burke was a member, "found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse made by Mrs Atwood," the society said in a statement. Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, was rocked by two successive reports last year revealing widespread abuse mainly of boys by priests going back decades, coupled with the Church hierarchy's complicity in covering it up. The pope has earlier accepted the resignations of four Irish bishops or auxiliary bishops involved in the scandal, and on Monday the Vatican said it would launch a promised investigation in the autumn.
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