Pope Benedict XVI is to sign a letter to the Irish faithful Friday about recent child sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Church in Ireland, the pope announced at his general audience Wednesday. Greeting Irish well-wishers on St Patrick's Day, the pope said in English: "As you know, in the last few months the Church in Ireland has been strongly rocked by the crisis of abuse of minors".

"As a sign of my profound concern I have written a pastoral letter that deals with this painful situation. I will sign it on St Joseph's Day, the guardian of the Holy family and patron of the universal Church, and I will send it soon". "I ask you to read it yourselves with an open heart and a spirit of faith. My hope is that it will help in the process of repentance, healing and renewal". Shortly after the pope's announcement, a man hurled insults at the pope in English. The man was said to have "addressed insulting and profane language" at the pope from the front row of the audience, near the pope's platform, before papal guards hustled him away. Security around the 82-year-old pope has been tightened since a mentally unstable Swiss woman, Susanna Maiolo, clambered over a railing in St Peter's Basilica ahead of Christmas Eve Mass, pulling the pope to the ground and injuring French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray.

She had tried to reach the pope on the same occasion in 2008 but was quietly tackled by security guards. The angry man on Wednesday did not try to get near the pope. Wednesday's announcement came as the leader of Ireland's Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, apologised for not reporting a paedophile priest to the police in the mid-1970s. In a St Patrick's Day address in Dublin, Cardinal Brady said he would "reflect" on his future role. Several victims' organisations have called on the Primate to resign. Several Irish bishops have resigned after two reports detailed decades of abuse and cover-ups in schools and the Dublin diocese.

The child-abuse scandal, which first erupted in the US in the late 1990s, has since spread to Europe with Austria, the Netherlands and the pope's native Germany being the latest countries involved. Benedict, who as doctrinal watchdog in 2001 laid down guidelines to keep initial probes in-house, has pledged new strategies to root out this "hateful crime". The German scandal came near Benedict himself last week when it emerged that a priestly abuser had been reassigned to Church work when the pope was archbishop of Bavaria. But the pope's then No.2 in Munich said he had made the call and the future pope was unaware of the decision. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday the "abominable crime" of paedophilia was a problem for "the whole of society, not just the Church". She called for "clarity" and said victims should be compensated. Veteran German liberal theologian Hans Kung said the pope should perform a 'mea culpa" on why Church rules had not been changed.