priest sex scandal

The report on the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked last year, states that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI were aware of the accusations of sexual misconduct.

Richard Malone had faced scrutiny for allegedly mishandling sexual abuse claims against the priests in his diocese. He announced Wednesday that the pope had accepted his request to "retire early."

The former archbishop of Sydney and high-ranking Vatican official was sentenced in March to six years in prison for abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s.

The Rev. Kenneth Hendricks faces charges in Ohio — where he was previously based — of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, a federal crime.

Guam's archdiocese is facing claims from nearly 200 alleged survivors. "Bankruptcy is the method to deliver the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims," said a Church lawyer.

Karl Racine ordered the probe after the archdiocese released a list of priests "credibly" accused of child sex abuse over a decades-long period.

It is the first national apology on behalf of the federal government since a major report published last year showed the problem was rampant in Australia's Catholic Church and other institutions.

The Justice Department issued subpoenas to at least six of the state's eight dioceses seeking private files and records following revelations that more than 1,000 minors were abused, NPR has learned.

The two high-ranking retired clerics, Archbishop Francisco José Cox Huneeus and Bishop Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, were expelled from the priesthood because of alleged "manifest abuse of minors."

The study found that 5 percent of priests in the country's dioceses had been accused of abuse. Germany's justice minister said the study was "shocking and probably just the tip of the iceberg."