The Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin is to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams to outline his anger and shock at his claim that the church here has "lost all credibility" as a result of its ongoing child abuse crisis.

As an unprecedented row between the leaders of the two faiths intensified yesterday, Martin pledged to publish the contents of the response "if necessary" and expressed concern that the remarks were being "boomed" by the BBC around the world "without any qualification."

"If he wanted to say "look, the leadership of the Catholic church, or the archbishop of Dublin has lost all credibility," let him say that. But let's not just drag in everybody into the same lot," Martin told RTE's Marian Finucane radio show yesterday.

"The archbishop of Canterbury is a major church leader and I do believe he has an obligation to nuance his comments… it is very hard to parse and interpret (that comment) in any other way than what the words say."

The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, echoed Martin's concerns, telling the programme that he was "surprised and sadd­ened" to hear of the comments.

"I do really think that the remark was very much over the top… it's not only harsh, but it's actually going against the facts."

In a highly unusual intervention, Williams commented for the first time on the crisis gripping the Catholic church, during a wider BBC radio interview due to be broadcast in full tomorrow.

"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," he told the Start the Week programme. "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."

The Church of Ireland (COI) archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, who has worked with Dr Martin to help foster closer links between faiths here, yesterday quickly sought to distance himself from Williams' views. He expressed his "deep regret" at the move and extended his support to Archbishop Martin. The COI Bishop of Meath and Kildare Richard Clarke also criticised the "careless and reckless" use of language by Williams.

A spokeswoman for Williams was unavailable when contacted yesterday..

Martin Long, spokesman for both the Irish Bishops Conference and under pressure Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady said Archbishop Williams, as leader of a different faith, is entitled to his opinion "but I won't be directly responding." However there was some support yesterday for Williams' views.

Maeve Lewis, executive director of the victims group One in Four, said he" is echoing what victims groups have been saying for months now, that the leadership of the Catholic Church here, with the exception of Diarmuid Martin, has lost all credibility."