Vatican, Vatican Child Sex Abuse Cover-up | featured news

Ireland's government summoned the Vatican's ambassador Thursday for a rare face-to-face confrontation to respond to a report showing Rome secretly discouraged Irish bishops from reporting pedophile priests to police.

The Vatican said on Tuesday it would prove it cannot be held legally responsible for the actions of a priest at the center of a sexual abuse scandal in the United States.

Pope Benedict said on Tuesday the crisis of sexual abuse of children by priests should make the Church acknowledge the "terrifying" truth that its greatest threat comes from "sin within the Church".

Pope Benedict XVI today promised a group of sexual abuse victims in Malta that he will make sure their abusers are brought "to justice," the Vatican announced.

The Vatican sought to distance itself from comments by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, its secretary of state, that homosexuality is “a pathology” and linked to sexual abuse.

The Vatican for the first time released guidelines that explicitly say that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report cases of abuse to police if required by law.

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

The Vatican says there was no cover-up in the sexual abuse case by an American priest accused of molesting 200 deaf boys and denounces what it calls attempts to smear Pope Benedict XVI.