As Archbishop Christian Lépine moved through the last days of Lent toward Easter 2022, he acknowledged the worst Cross to bear in his 10 years leading Montreal Roman Catholics has been the scandal of clerical sexual abuse.

Entering the season of Lent can seem like a blessed relief. The harsh mark of ash on the forehead, the stark words of truth, “you are dust,” the stripping away of the distractions and pleasures of our earthly life to stare our mortality square in the face — all these can be received with a bracing joy.

VATICAN CITY -- Amending a written statement made to a panel investigating clerical sexual abuse in his former Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, retired Pope Benedict XVI said he was present at a 1980 meeting to discuss the transfer of a priest accused of misconduct.

MUNICH -- A law firm's report on how abuse cases were handled in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising incriminated retired Pope Benedict XVI, with lawyers accusing him of misconduct in four cases during his tenure as Munich archbishop.

WARSAW, Poland -- A Polish diocese apologized after its lawyer suggested a former altar server could have enjoyed being sexually molested by a priest, as a spokesman for victims warned the church still had "a long way to go" in combating abuse.

The Archdiocese of Montreal has received 75 formal complaints, 46 of which relate to abuse, dating back to 1950, according to the second quarterly report compiled by an independent ombudsman.

LOURDES, France -- France's Catholic bishops have unveiled new measures to counter sexual abuse by clergy after an October report by an independent commission estimated more than 330,000 children had been abused since the 1950s.

A Canadian priest who served in three different Canadian dioceses from 2010 to 2013 has been convicted by a French court in the 2019 sexual assault of four teenage girls in France and Italy.

VATICAN CITY -- An adult survivor of abuse by a priest appealed to the world’s seminarians to become good priests and to make sure the “bitter truth” always prevails, not silence about scandals and their cover-up.

Just in case any of us thought the abuse crisis in the Church has moved from a boil to a simmer, the report from an independent commission on sexual abuse in France has turned up the heat yet again — as it should.

VATICAN CITY -- Shame and sorrow are appropriate initial responses to the report on the extent of clerical sexual abuse in France, but the Catholic Church must move to action to protect children and to guarantee justice for victims and survivors, said Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna.

Over the past five years, on Tuesdays at noon at the Church of St. Louis d’Antin, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris near the Passage du Havre shopping centre, a shy, scholarly Canadian priest would approach the altar to offer Mass and call the assembly of immigrants and downtown shoppers to confess their sinfulness.

VATICAN CITY -- A Vatican court cleared two priests involved in a controversial sex abuse case at a minor seminary once located at the Vatican.

An independent report on sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church estimates 330,000 children have been abused since the 1950s. Most of the victims were pre-adolescent boys of all social backgrounds, and more than a third of the assaults were committed by laypeople.

VATICAN CITY -- The Catholic Church's inability to make victims of abuse their top concern is a cause for intense shame, Pope Francis said.