The leader of the world's Anglicans has expressed "deep sorrow and regret" for saying the Catholic Church in Ireland is "losing all credibility" over the pedophile priests scandal.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams apologised to Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin and one of Ireland's most senior Catholics, for "difficulties which may have been created" by the remarks.
Martin had earlier said he was "stunned" by Williams' "unequivocal and unqualified" comments, which were made in a BBC radio interview to be broadcast on Monday.
Williams telephoned Martin to say that "nothing could have been farther from his intention than to offend or criticise the Irish Church", according to a statement released by the Archbishop of Dublin.
A spokeswoman for the Archbishop of Canterbury confirmed he had spoken to Martin and said he "had no intention of criticising or attacking" the Catholic Church.
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She added: "The Church in Ireland continues to work tirelessly to deal with the scandal of abuse."
Strained relations
Relations between the two churches have been strained since last October when Pope Benedict XVI offered disgruntled Anglicans an easier route to conversion to Catholicism.
Williams, the spiritual leader of more than 70 million Anglicans worldwide, said in the interview that the Irish Catholic Church's disarray over the child sex abuse scandal is a "colossal trauma".
"I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who was saying that it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now," Williams said.
"And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility - that's not just a problem for the Church, it is a problem for everybody in Ireland."
'Timing unhelpful'
Martin said the timing of the comments on Easter weekend had been particularly unhelpful.
"In all my years as Archbishop of Dublin in difficult times I have rarely felt personally so discouraged," he said.
Ireland, a strongly Catholic country, has been shaken by two major investigations in the last year detailing child sex abuse by priests stretching back decades - and Church leaders' complicity in covering it up.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, has faced calls to resign after it emerged he had persuaded two child victims of abuse to agree not to talk about their experiences.
Suspicion between churches
Williams' comments are likely to raise suspicion between the two churches ahead of the pope's scheduled visit to Britain in September.
Allegations of abuse by priests have since emerged in other countries, including the pope's native Germany.
The Vatican was on Saturday forced to defend the pope's personal preacher over remarks that likened attacks on the pontiff over pedophile priests to anti-Semitism.
Jewish groups and representatives of victims of abuse by priests condemned Father Raniero Cantalamessa for quoting the comments, which he said were made in a letter from a Jewish friend, in his Good Friday sermon.
