Pope Benedict XVI told US bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been “very badly handled”.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of America’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, apologised to the hundreds of people who will get a share of a €488m settlement over allegations of clergy sex abuse.

Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, has been convicted of raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s.