The Victims of a Waterford paedophile have written to Pope Francis asking for one of the senior priests in the diocese to be removed from a school board.
Bill Kenneally was sentenced to 14 years last year after pleading guilty to abusing 10 teenage boys in the 1980s.
Kenneally is a nephew of 91-year-old Monsignor John Shine.
According to the Sunday Independent the victims allege the Monsignor knew from at least 2002 that his nephew had abused at least one boy but that he did nothing about it.
Monsignor Shine denies the allegations.
Yesterday, the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore issued a statement saying the Monsignor had resigned last Friday from his role as chairperson of the Board of Management at Holy Cross National School in Tramore.
"Today I have resigned my position as chairperson of the Board of Management of Holy Cross National School, Tramore, Co Waterford. I have been involved in the running and welfare of the school for over thirty years.
I have made my decision bearing in mind the wishes, and indeed the distress, of the victims of my nephew Bill Kenneally,
Due to a serious illness, I have been housebound for the last three months and I was in hospital in December to undergo an operation. However, when I am in a position to do so, I would very much wish to meet with the victims to hear their views, and to share with them all that I know of events of the past. It is my deep hope that I may be reconciled with them in their immense suffering.
Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford & Lismore, has formally accepted my resignation as chairperson."
