The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was today reeling from a report which unmasks, in harrowing detail, four decades of institutionalised sexual abuse of children by priests.

Church leaders, police and state agencies in County Wexford, southeast Ireland, were all criticised for failing to acknowledge or act upon dozens of reports of molestation and rape.

Eamonn Walsh, the Bishop of Ferns, apologised unreservedly following the publication of the Ferns Inquiry Report today: "Even though I have been dealing with this for years, reading a litany of such horrible, horrible gross abuse and rape all condensed together, it just leaves me speechless...

"We were ordained to bring God to people and reach out to the most vulnerable. Some of our people preyed on the most vulnerable and abused them in the most horrific way," he said.

In a statement to the Dail, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described the findings as "a catalogue of serial abuse and gross dereliction of duty".

The Opposition leader, Enda Kenny, said: "The detail is scandalous and brings shame on a civilised society. It is a shocking wake-up call to the Church and the state."

The publication follows a two-year investigation by Frank Murphy, a retired Irish Supreme Court Judge. He interviewed more than 100 people who claimed they were assaulted by 21 priests - eight of whom have since died.

The investigation has huge implications for the Catholic Church which is struggling with abuse scandals worldwide.

Two Bishops who were in charge of the Ferns diocese between 1966 and 2002 came in for the most severe criticism in the report.

Donal Herlihy, Bishop from 1964 to 1983, protected abusers, the report says. He ordained "clearly unsuitable" candidates for the priesthood. Under his control, priests accused of abuse would be temporarily shifted to different posts, before returning to their parishes. This was: "ill-advised, inadequate and inappropriate". Brendan Comiskey, his successor, who resigned in 2002 after admitting he had not done enough to prevent abuse, was more conscious of the need to protect the reputation of clergy than the children. Money was paid to some complainants.

The most notorious priest in the diocese was Father Sean Fortune. Father Fortune, who was awaiting trial on 29 charges of indecent assault and other offences, relating to eight boys dating back to the late 1970s, killed himself in his fortress-like house in 1999. He had been removed from his post in 1993, only to return as a curate two years later.

The report also found that Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Siochana, rarely investigated complaints of abuse properly and kept no records of any such cases before 1988.

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