Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, counsel of the claimants, said there were 16 settlements in all, including three with religious orders.

The settlements total about $1 million, according to media reports.

Garabedian said two settlements with religious orders have been reached in cases involving priests who allegedly abused victims while they worked in the archdiocese.

Another, separate settlement with the Carmelite Order involved a brother who had been accused of abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles before being assigned to Peabody.

The agreements carried no admission of liability, the lawyer said.

Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, said the church "is committed to addressing cases of clergy abuse in a compassionate and just manner."

"As a matter of practice, we generally do not comment on individual settlements with survivors," he told the Boston Globe.

Garabedian, who has settled more than 1,000 claims, said the latest cases show that more victims are becoming emboldened to pursue claims they had tried to forget or bury.

"They could not come forward until their coping mechanism allowed them to," he said.

The lawyer said the settlements are an acknowledgment of abuse.

"A settlement helps a survivor try to rid himself or herself of the unnecessary guilt and shame felt as a result of being sexually abused," said Garabedian

Sources

Boston Globe
AP/CBS News
ABC
Image: CBS News

The move comes despite a commitment by the Australian Catholic Church not to subject victims of child sexual abuse to gruelling cross-examination.

Cardinal Pell denies the allegations against him concerning the period when he was a priest in Ballarat.

He has engaged Melbourne "mega-advocate" Allan Myers to test his accusers.

His legal representation will be separate from that of the Church.

A hearing by Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse regarding Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat will take place next month.

Cardinal Pell will return to Melbourne from Rome to give his evidence.

This will be the third time the cardinal has appeared before the royal commission.

Truth Justice and Healing Council head Francis Sullivan said while it was Church policy not to cross-examine victims, Cardinal Pell was in a different situation.

"The cardinal has obviously chosen separate legal representation because in the first part of the Ballarat hearings serious personal allegations have been made against him," he said.

"We, the council, fully support the fact that he will need to take the option of possibly having his lawyers cross examine that evidence.

"The royal commission has made it clear that in order for it to make appropriate findings all evidence needs to be put on the table and in order for that occur, individuals making allegations need to have their evidence tested directly."

In royal commission hearings in Melbourne this month, Pell's role as an auxiliary bishop in that archdiocese is to be scrutinised.

Sources

• Herald Sun
• ABC
• The Guardian
• Eureka Street
• Image: Catholic Sun

The pope met with five adults who had suffered abuse as children.

The victims had been abused by the clergy or by members of their families or their teachers.

Francis heard their stories and spoke to the group, then met with each survivor individually, praying with them.

Francis has previously met with victims, as did his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

The Pope told the victims and their supporters: "You are precious children of God who should always expect our protection, our care and our love."

The Pope also said he is deeply sorry for those occasions when victims or their families spoke out and reported abuse, but were not believed.

"I deeply regret that some bishops failed in their responsibility to protect children," he added.

"It is very disturbing to know that in some cases bishops even were abusers.

"I pledge to you that we will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead.

"Clergy and bishops will be held accountable when they abuse or fail to protect children."

Francis also told those at the meeting that "Your stories of survival, each unique and compelling, are powerful signs of the hope that comes from the Lord's promise to be with us always."

"We promise to support your continued healing and to always be vigilant to protect the children of today and tomorrow."

Also present at the meeting was Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who heads the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Speaking later to bishops and seminarians, Pope Francis said "God weeps" and "I regret this profoundly".

The Pope described himself as "overwhelmed by shame".

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests described the Pope's meeting with victims as a public relations gesture.

Francis's comments on the scandal came after days of simmering resentment about his earlier remarks, in which critics said he seemed more concerned about its effect on the clergy than the victims.

Sources

• New York Times
• The Guardian
• Text of Pope's remarks to abuse victims
• Image: ABC

The 12 are suspected of abusing four teenage boys between 2004 and 2007.

The most serious offences are alleged to have occurred in a house used by the priests.

Pope Francis telephoned one of the alleged victims, now 24, in November to offer his apologies.

He acted after the man wrote him a letter about the alleged abuse.

The pontiff, who has pledged zero tolerance of child sex abuse, then ordered a Church investigation.

Several arrests were made in November, but the suspects are now free on bail.

Following the alleged victim's call from the Pope, the Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, and fellow priests prostrated themselves in front of the altar of Granada's cathedral to seek pardon for sexual abuse in the Church.

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Last week, Cardinal Pell used a "trucking company" analogy before Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Speaking by video link from Rome, the Cardinal likened the Church to a trucking company that refuses to take responsibility for a driver who molested women.

"It would not be appropriate, because it's contrary to the policy, for the ownership, leadership of that company to be held responsible," Cardinal Pell told commissioners.

"Similarly with the Church and the head of any other organisation.

"It is, I think, not appropriate for legal culpability to be foisted on the authority figure."

Victims' groups were quick to condemn the remarks.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Cathy Kezelman called his comments "outrageous", and said they denied the experience of victims.

Nicky Davis, from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told ABC radio that Cardinal Pell had made a "highly offensive" comparison.

"He shows that he really has absolutely no conception of what is appropriate or inappropriate behaviour and what are appropriate or inappropriate things to say to survivors," she said.

Cardinal Pell also expressed support for the Vatican's refusal earlier this year to turn over documents requested by royal commission about every abuse case Rome had dealt with in Australia.

These had been requested by chairman Justice Peter McClellan.

Describing these documents as the internal workings of another sovereign state, Cardinal Pell said the Church has provided 5000 pages of documents, which he deemed sufficient.

Cardinal Pell also outraged victims by saying he hadn't been following the royal commission, because he had been busy in Rome.

This brought forth audible gasps from victims watching his evidence.

The cardinal was made the Vatican's first economic prefect by Pope Francis earlier this year.

The commission is looking at the Melbourne Response for abuse victims, set up by Pell in 1996.

The approach has been criticised for its cap on compensation and for discouraging victims from going to police.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Herald Sun
• Image: Daily Telegraph

He made these remarks during a prayer vigil in Rome for victims of the Mafia.

"Men and women of the Mafia, please change your lives, convert, stop doing evil," the Pope said.

"I ask on my knees and for your own good."

"This life you have now, it will not give you pleasure, it will not give you joy, it will not give you happiness," the Pope said.

"The power, the money you have now from so many dirty deals, from so many Mafia crimes, blood-stained money, blood-stained power - you will not be able to take that with you to the other life."

"There is still time not to end up in hell, which awaits you if you continue on this road," Pope Francis continued.

"You had a papa and a mamma. Think of them, weep a little and convert."

Every year since 1996, the Italian anti-Mafia group Libera has observed March 21, in memory of innocent victims of organised crime.

This was the first time a pope has participated in this event.

According to the group, the approximately 700 people gathered with Pope Francis in a Rome church this year represented the families of an estimated 15,000 victims across Italy.

The Pope listened for about 45 minutes, head bowed and hands folded in prayer, as members of the congregation recited the names of people killed by the Mafia.

Francis made special reference to a recent attack near Taranto, in which three people - two adults and a toddler - were shot dead in an apparent Mafia hit.

"Let us pray together to ask the strength to move ahead," the Pope said, "to be not discouraged but to continue to struggle against corruption."

In 1993, Pope John Paul II urged the Mafia to "convert" and warned them that judgment day was coming.

Two months later, two Roman churches were damaged in bomb attacks amid a wave of violence.

Sources:

• Catholic News Service
• The Guardian
• The Daily Mail
• Image: Catholic News Service

Cardinal Dolan, now the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was formerly archbishop of Milwaukee.

Cardinal Dolan's successor in Milwaukee, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, said the documents describe "some terrible things", with graphic descriptions that require spiritual preparation to read.

One repeatedly abusive priest engaged in sexual activity with a young boy, the child's mother and her female friend.

The documents were made public as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court between the archdiocese and victims suing it for fraud.

They show that whereas previous archbishops had covered up evidence of abuse and shuffled accused priests to new parish assignments, then-Archbishop Dolan pressed for prompt and decisive action against priests guilty of abuse.

He urged Vatican officials to respond promptly to requests for laicisation, and insisted that candour was essential to restore the damaged credibility of the Catholic hierarchy.

But lawyers for abuse victims complained that Dolan paid accused priests to accept laicisation and established a new cemetery trust fund to shield money from creditors.

Dolan, who said these were "old and discredited attacks", said priests were paid to discharge the canon law obligation of dioceses to provide financial support for clergy; and the $NZ73 million placed in trust was always earmarked for cemetery care.

A 2011 deposition by former Archbishop Rembert Weakland said bishops in the 1980s dealt with priests who abused minors in much the same way as those who were alcoholics or had money problems.

Bishops viewed paedophilia as an "afflication", Weakland said. "We were probably all of us naive in thinking that it was a question of willpower and a question of self-discipline. I handled cases [in the 1980s] thinking, hoping, praying that it would be the last one I would have to deal with."

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Reporter

Associated Press

Image: CathNews USA

In a new submission the Church said it has now identified 849 victims and 269 offenders. The previous submission cited 618 victims.

The offenders included 98 priests, 114 brothers, nine nuns and 42 lay people (40 male and two female). Two were seminarians and four were unknown.

Church spokesman Father Shane Mackinlay said the revised figures were the result of collating submissions to the inquiry by five Church entities: the Melbourne and Ballarat dioceses, and the Christian Brothers, Salesians and St John of God orders.

The oldest abuse cases dated from the 1930s, and the figures were complete to June 30, 2012, Father Mackinlay said.

He still could not guarantee that the figures were comprehensive — for example, they did not include settlements outside the Towards Healing protocol by other religious orders — "but we're getting very close".

He said the original figure of 618 cases was based only on records from the Melbourne Response and Towards Healing protocols, the only ones that held centralised records, but more detailed research was done as the Church groups prepared to give evidence.

The new figures were submitted on June 6, one day before the deadline for written submissions.

Asked if the Church could have prepared the numbers in time for the public hearings — at which the number of 618 victims was frequently quoted — Father Mackinlay said the Church had done it as early as possible.

"This is the earliest opportunity we've had in working with the detail of the figures and reconciling them," he said.

Father Mackinlay said the Church's priority was to help and not to count victims.

Sources:

The Age

The Age

Image: JW News

"No. Never," the Sydney cardinal told the inquiry. He said the offending had largely escaped the view of Church officials who didn't know what a "mess" they were presiding over.

Cardinal Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 till 2001, and responsible for establishing the Melbourne Response to deal with victims of child sexual abuse.

An overflow crowd heard him reject claims that there had been a "culture of abuse" among priests.

"I think the bigger fault was nobody would talk about it, nobody would mention it," he said. He admitted his predecessor as Melbourne archbishop, Archbishop Frank Little, had "mishandled" one abuse case by destroying documents.

Cardinal Pell agreed under questioning that the fear of scandal led to a cover-up.

"The primary motivation would have been to respect the reputation of the Church," he said. "There was a fear of scandal."

He said the Church had been the victim of years of "intermittent hostility from the press" but he said this had helped uncover some of the Church's failings.

In its submission to the inquiry, the Catholic Church said at least 620 Victorian children had been abused by its clergy in the past 80 years.

The cardinal, who was the last of 160 witnesses before the inquiry, said many in the Church did not understand "just what damage was being done to the victims".

"If we'd been gossips, which we weren't ... we would have realised earlier just how widespread this business was," he said.

He agreed that the Church had been slow to address the anguish of the victims.

"I'm certainly totally committed to improving the situation. I know the Holy Father is too," he told the inquiry.

Cardinal Pell admitted that priestly celibacy "might have been a factor in some cases", though paedophilia was also perpetrated by married people in the community.

In the middle of last century, he said, the screening process for seminarians was "much too loose".

Sources:

The Australian

ABC News

The Age

The Australian

Image: The Age

Some criminals have received large compensation payments for violation of their human rights. The Prisoners' and Victims' Claims (Continuation and Reform) Amendment Bill will make permanent earlier temporary legislation which allowed victims of crime to seek a share of any compensation prisoners may have received.

"I think that part of the bill is arguably in breach of human rights law," Wakem told Parliament's justice select committee on Thursday 22 February.

She said it would be better to focus on a better compensation scheme for victims generally.

Wakem says the proposed legislation "sends a message to prisoners that, really, the justice system in New Zealand is retributive, an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth, and I'm on my own mate."

That left little incentive for prisoners to participate in rehabilitation in prison or on release.

Then those un-rehabilitated prisoners were returned to the community, Wakem said.

In 2011 the Dominion Post reported six figure compensation payouts to five prisoners who were held at Auckland's Paremoremo prison.

At the time Human rights lawyer Tony Ellis said he was seeking compensation in the Auckland High Court for a further 72 criminals who were subjected to inhumane treatment by Auckland prison staff between 1998 and 2004, and estimated more than 100 others could still claim.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Scoop
• Auckland Now
• Image: The National

New statistics released by the Scottish government revealed an increase of 26 per cent in religious hate crimes in 2011-2012. Anti-Catholic attacks made up 58 per cent of all religious hate crimes.

The president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, said: "I am saddened by the latest figures on religiously aggravated offending. While most Catholics are safe most of the time, these figures show a side of Scotland which is truly unfortunate.

"Sadly, it seems incontrovertible now that our problem is not so much sectarianism but anti-Catholicism. This is regrettable because popular culture is inventing all kinds of new reasons to marginalise and hate Catholics.

"In the face of this, the Catholic community of Scotland remains steadfast in faith, joyful in hope and fully committed to being part of Scottish society."

Of the 876 religious hate crimes analysed by the Justice Analytical Services, 509 were committed against Catholics. There were 19 attacks against Muslims and 14 against Jews.

Most areas of Scotland saw a rise in religiously aggravated charges since the previous year, with Glasgow being a notable exception.

The number of charges related to football rose from 231 to 267, although the number of hate crimes at football stadiums fell.

The Minister for Community Safety, Roseanna Cunningham, said the government had brought in new legislation to eradicate sectarianism.

"It is completely unacceptable for people to think that offensive religious or sectarian language, or verbal or physical attacks based purely on religious prejudice, have any place in 21st century Scotland," she said.

Sources:

Independent Catholic News

The Scottish Government

Image: STV News