Monsignor Richard S Sniezyk said that as a seminarian and a young priest in the 1950s and early 1960s, he heard of priests who had sex with young men, but "no one thought much about it".

"They did good ministry, they were good to their people, they were kind, compassionate, but they had no idea what they were doing to these young men that they were abusing," Sniezyk told The Boston Globe on Sunday. "It was that era of the '60s - most of it took place from the mid-'60s to the early-'80s - and the whole atmosphere out there was, it was OK, it was OK to do.

"Certainly that atmosphere is not present in the church today," he said.

Sniezyk will head the diocese until the Vatican names a replacement for Bishop Thomas Dupre, who resigned on February 11. He said he was stepping down for health reasons but the move came amid allegations he abused two boys while a parish priest in the 1970s.

When he was appointed interim leader on February 13, Sniezyk said the church should acknowledge that in those decades an "old boy network" protected priests suspected of sexual abuse.

"We have to come clean," Sniezyk said then, recalling how as a young priest he heard rumors of "cliques of priests" who molested young churchgoers, yet were protected by church and legal officials. Sniezyk, who was ordained in 1962, said he never witnessed any abuse.

The Reverend James Scahill, a priest at St Michael's Parish in East Longmeadow, disputed Sniezyk's comments.

"He's saying priests were that lame in the brain not to know this was wrong?" Scahill told the newspaper. "Any sensible person would know this is evil."