Religion, Church Child Abuse Cover-up | featured news

Pope Benedict XVI was "deeply affected" by a meeting with victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, he said Wednesday, in his first public comments on the scandal in more than a month.

Reports that the Vatican intends to force the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland to resign are denied.

A police investigation continued Thursday into a Catholic abuse scandal in Brazil, which erupted last week when a network aired a video that it said showed a priest having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy.

The Roman Catholic Church in Dublin covered up decades of child abuse committed by priests, an expert commission reported after a probe into previously secret church records.