THE Pope was “visibly upset” by the stories of clerical child abuse, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said yesterday, with an announcement from the Vatican on the Ryan Report now likely.

A former student of Pope Benedict today branded clerics who ran abusive institutions as the “dregs of society”.

The Survivors of Child Abuse in Ireland group (SOCA) has called for the Laffoy Commission to be replaced with a criminal inquiry into clerical child sex abuse.