Cardinal Seán Brady has said the Catholic Church here needs to continue to identify what exactly is required to make reparation for past child abuse and to build solid foundations for true renewal in the future.
Celebrating the Lord's Passion in St Patrick's Church in Dundalk, he thanked victims for sharing their experiences with him this week and urged a continuation of such encounters.
He said he thought that many others wanted to tell their story and that they had a right to be heard also.
The Cardinal also reiterated that the country's bishops had failed, sometimes grievously, in their response to the crime of child abuse by priests and religious.
He said his own sorrow that this had happened must prompt a search for ways to both repair the damage and right the wrong that victims and their families had endured.
Meanwhile, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said that lack of integrity and authenticity has damaged both Irish society and the Church.
He made his remarks during meditations on the Stations of The Cross in the Phoenix Park.
He said fidelity should be a pillar of economic relations but that its betrayal affected not just those who were unfaithful, but the ordinary life of ordinary people.
He criticised the failure to fulfil many promises to the world's poor: international commitments, goals, packages and agreements, which were replaced only by more of the same.
Turning to the child abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, he lamented the harm done by the infidelity of clerics acting in the name of Jesus: priests who had abused and others clerics who failed to protect victims.
He said the fabric of society was harmed when a climate of mistrust was created by a culture where quick profit may be more important than building a sustainable future for all.
Finally, he said fidelity drew its strength from love and that infidelity was placing self as more important than love, than reaching out to others.
Nothing could be farther away from living the Christian life, he added.
