Diarmuid Martin said the diocese must be called to renewal by recognising what happened in the past, accepting responsibility for it and investigating criminal behaviour.

In his homily at the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, Archbishop Martin said it would be foolish to say this was the happiest Christmas in his life or for many in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

"It has been a painful year for the diocese as it undergoes the tough process of looking at a period of its recent past," said the Primate of Ireland. "The diocese failed its most vulnerable members. The Archdiocese failed to recognise what was to be done."

The Dublin-based Murphy inquiry, based on a sample 46 priests, revealed a catalogue of paedophilia and subsequent cover-ups over three decades because the Catholic hierarchy was obsessed with secrecy and granted police immunity. Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty and Limerick Bishop Donal Murray both resigned over the damning findings in the report.

Archbishop Martin said the interests of the ordained had been given priority over the needs of the baptised.

"It has been a painful year. But the church today may well be a better and safer place than was the church of 25 years ago when all looked well but where deep shadows were kept buried," he continued. "The church in Dublin is called to conversion and to renewal."

He said when survivors turned to a priest, they were met by betrayal of priesthood through abuse. But Archbishop Martin maintained there were also great priests in the diocese.

"They too feel betrayed," he said. "Many feel that I have not defended them enough and not supported them adequately at this moment. If I have failed them, from this Mother Church of the Archdiocese I ask their pardon. I recognise their dedication and I am sure that the people of the diocese do too. Similarly from this Mother Church of the Archdiocese I repeat my words to survivors: 'no words of apology will ever be enough for the hurt caused and the way your hurt was brushed aside'."