The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has said the archdiocese is considering contributing to a trust fund to help the victims of institutional abuse.
Dr Martin has been a trenchant critic of the approach to date by the 18 institutions which were involved in the abuse documented in the Ryan Commission report published last year.
Speaking at the opening of the Fr Collins Park in Donaghmede, north Dublin, today, he said all of the 18 institutions "must come forward" to acknowledge their responsibilities.
The Archbishop explained that he was in favour of an autonomous trust fund which would address the needs of survivors in an impartial way.
Many survivors have already indicated that they would not be prepared to accept help directly from religious orders which had caused them so much suffering.
The Archbishop was challenged by reporters as to whether the abuse that went on in institutions in the archdiocese such as Artane and Goldenbridge meant that the Archdiocese bore some responsibility and should make a contribution to the victims.
He responded: “I have a moral responsibility to act on things I have a moral responsibility for. I am looking at that particularly given what has come up about what happened in the Dublin diocese. I would join in some way in a trust fund that was looking forward to the future. I will look and see what the trust fund is like.”
He was also asked if the Oblates, who ran the notorious Daingean reformatory in Co Offaly, should hand over a substantial portion of the €105 million they received four years ago for Belcamp College in north Dublin.
“I have no idea where that money (€105 million) is today and if it is still disposable for them. I think each of the orders should come forward in a transparent way and take on the responsibilities that they have themselves now said they would assume," he said.
The Archbishops said the Ryan Commission was only the beginning of a process of reconciliation and confidence in church-run institutions could not be restored quickly.
"You can't regain confidence just like that. You have to reconstruct it," he said. "The truth have come out about a long period in Irish history and we all have to ponder on that.
"The primary thing is how we are looking after children today and the way we respond to the survivors of the past will show how committed we are to a different future."
Dr Martin said one of his predecessors, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, had “raised a flag” about abuse in Artane, but there was “enormous resistance” to knowing what was really going on in such institutions at Government level.
“When the chaplain in Artane (Fr Henry Moore) went to a government commission, the then Secretary of the Department of Justice Peter Berry, who was not particularly pro-church, said he had never seen a person treated so badly in front of a Government commission,” he said.
The Archbishop was also asked if criticisms in the Ryan Commission report of The Sisters of Mercy who ran Goldenbridge made them unfit to run the Mater Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the State.
The Commission stated there was an unwillingness among the Sisters of Mercy to acknowledge that violence in its institutions was systemic.
The Archbishop said the Sisters of Mercy were not "irresponsible people" and had been "quite courageous" a few years ago in acknowledging their responsibilities.