POPE BENEDICT XVI met yesterday with a group of clerical sex abuse victims and promised them with tears in his eyes that the Catholic Church would seek justice for paedophile priests and implement “effective measures” to protect young people from abuse.

Spanish media are quoting a retired Vatican cardinal as saying the late Pope John Paul backed his letter congratulating a French bishop for risking jail by shielding a priest convicted of paedophilia.

A French Roman Catholic bishop was today given a suspended three months prison sentence for concealing knowledge that a priest was sexually abusing children.

A French bishop went on trial today accused of concealing that he knew a Roman Catholic priest in his diocese was sexually molesting young children.