The Pope and three top Vatican officials have been accused of crimes against humanity in a formal declaration lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The pope today told of his deep shame at the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and promised to work to keep paedophiles out of the priesthood.

AMERICAN bishops were blamed yesterday for failing to stop widespread clerical sex abuse which resulted in almost 11,000 abuse claims against Catholic clergy over the past 50 years.

NEARLY all US Roman Catholic bishops are carrying out a new mandatory policy they adopted to prevent sex abuse by priests, according to a church audit released yesterday.