America’s top bishop said the days of sheltering sex abusers in the Roman Catholic priesthood were “history”, following reports showing the extent of assaults on children over the last half-century and saying church leaders bore much of the blame.

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.

Two unprecedented studies that document pervasive sex abuse by US Roman Catholic clergy found nearly 11,000 young people have claimed they were molested since 1950, and that bishops bear much of the responsibility for the crisis.

THE Boston Archdiocese, the epicentre of the US clergy sex abuse crisis that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church, released a report yesterday showing that 162 of its priests have been accused of molesting 815 minors since 1950.

A FORMER US governor yesterday refused to withdraw his remarks likening Roman Catholic bishops to the Mafia.