An Irish Roman Catholic bishop at the centre of a row over his handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in his diocese has stepped aside, Church authorities said yesterday.

Bishop John Magee of Cloyne, in the south of Ireland, who was private secretary to three successive popes - Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II - said in a statement he had asked Pope Benedict XVI on February 4 to appoint an administrator to his diocese.

An apostolic administrator is appointed to govern a diocese temporarily when "special or very serious circumstances warrant" such an appointment, the Church says. He governs in the name of the pontiff.

Mgr Magee, 72, retains the title of Bishop of Cloyne but Pope Benedict has appointed the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dermot Clifford, to assume the powers and duties of the diocese.

Mainly Roman Catholic Ireland has been rocked by recurring scandals involving decades of abuse by Catholic clergy.

Mgr Magee has been under pressure since he was criticised in a report last December from the Church's own National Board for Safeguarding Children into the handling of two Cloyne priests accused of abusing children.

It found that child protection practices in the Cloyne were "inadequate and in some respects dangerous".

The report said there "was no evidence that risk had been appropriately identified or managed, thereby potentially exposing vulnerable young people to further harm".

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