DUBLIN, (Reuters) – The archbishop of Dublin washed  the feet of victims of clerical abuse on Sunday in one of the  most visible acts of contrition for the systemic mistreatment of  children that has shattered the Irish Catholic Church.

Addressing hundreds of people packed into Dublin’s  Pro-Cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin then made what victims  said was the most explicit apology to date for the role of the  Church hierarchy in enabling the abuse.

“For them to get down on their knees, it was humbling,” said  Darren McGavin, 39, who was abused as a child by a priest in his  west Dublin parish. “I’ve found it hard to forgive, but today I  found a small bit of closure.”

A damning 2009 Irish government report on widespread child  abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese between 1975 and 2004  said the Church in Ireland had “obsessively” concealed the  abuse.

The report said one priest admitted abusing more than 100  children. Another said he had abused children every two weeks  for more than 25 years.

“For covering up crimes of abuse, and by so doing actually  causing the sexual abuse of more children… we ask God’s  forgiveness,” Martin told the congregation.

“The archdiocese of Dublin will never be the same again. It  will always bear this wound within it.”

Martin and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who was sent to  Ireland by the Vatican to study the response of the Dublin  archdiocese to sexual abuse, lay prostrate in front of an empty  stone altar at the start of the service.

They later invited five women and three male victims of  abuse to the altar, where they knelt down and washed their feet,  a traditional Catholic gesture of humility.

Three of the victims held hands and sobbed as Martin poured  water on their feet and O’Malley dried them with a towel. Others  stared into the distance, expressionless.

“Today was a day of liberation for me,” said one of the  eight, a 63-year-old, who declined to give his name. “I never  thought I’d live to see this day when the church gave full  recognition for the horror that was there.”