The Irish Bishops Conference in 1996 lay out the procedures for handling allegations and suspicions of clerical child sex abuse in a document entitled “Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response.”

Former Bishop John Magee has apologised for failing the victims of abusive priests under his authority.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen and his party certainly did not distinguish themselves with the cabinet reshuffle during the week, but the contortions of Leo Varadkar helped to take some of the spotlight off the Government.

STRUGGLING to breathe, Pope John Paul II mumbled his final words in Polish: "Let me go to the house of the Father." Six hours later, the comatose pontiff died, the Vatican says.

THE first message a new Pope sends to the world is encoded in the name he chooses.

WAITING hours for a brief goodbye, pilgrims young and old prayed, sang hymns and shaded themselves from the sun with umbrellas as they queued yesterday to see Pope John Paul’s crimson-robed body at St Peter’s Basilica.

Pope John Paul sets out on Thursday on number 100, a five day tour of Croatia, a Roman Catholic stronghold in the Balkans.

OUR Roman taxi driver was talkative and his view of the Church was negative.