All Ireland's 24 Roman Catholic bishops have been summoned to the Vatican by Pope Benedict XVI for meetings to discuss child sex abuse by priests.

Last year, an investigation revealed church leaders had protected priests suspected of sexually abusing children.

The Murphy report on the scandal, released in November, accused church leaders of "obsessively" hiding child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese for decades.

A separate report in Ireland had been released months earlier documenting sexual, physical and psychological abuse in Catholic-run schools, workhouses and orphanages.

On Sunday, before the first of two days of meetings scheduled to begin Monday, the Bishop of Clogher Joseph Duffy said the scandal has already caused a lot of damage.

"I would admit quite frankly what everybody else knows, shouting from the housetops, that the church has been seriously wounded and we're in a very serious situation — that this has done immense damage to the authority of the church as the mouthpiece of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"And our business is to try to repair that damage and to restore confidence, because confidence has been lost, not only in the bishops, but by the bishops themselves," he said.

Duffy said the church has been "admittedly slower than it needs to be" in grappling with a "culture of concealment."

Armagh Archbishop Sean Brady, the primate of all Ireland, told Vatican Radio that the two days of meetings were part of a "journey of repentance, reconciliation and renewal" for the church.

With files from The Associated Press