Associated Press
Thursday, March 9, 2006; A13

DUBLIN, March 8 -- The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, rocked for a decade by sex scandals, on Wednesday made its biggest admission to date: 102 of its Dublin priests past and present, or 3.6 percent of the total since 1940, are suspected of abusing children.

The disclosure came a week before the government is to convene a probe into how church and state authorities conspired, by negligence and design, to cover up decades of child abuse within the Dublin priesthood.

Wednesday's report said Dublin church officials had identified at least 350 abuse victims and suspected there might be another 40.

"It's very frightening for me to see that in some of these cases, so many children were abused," said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, a Vatican diplomat assigned to Dublin in 2003 to address the problem in Ireland's largest Catholic congregation.

Since his appointment, the archdiocese -- home to more than 1 million Catholics -- has been reviewing the personnel records of more than 2,800 priests who have worked in Dublin since 1940. One hundred and two are suspected of abusing children, 32 have been sued and eight have been convicted of criminal offenses.

Martin says the archdiocese will likely have to sell property to meet bills for 40 unresolved lawsuits and potential claims from hundreds more.