
After centuries of impunity, cardinals from Chile to Australia and points in between are facing justice in both the Vatican and government courts for their own sexual misdeeds or for having shielded abusers under their watch.

After a French cardinal was convicted of covering up sex abuse, Pope Francis on Thursday addressed the scandals in a meeting with Roman clergy.

France’s senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, offered to resign Thursday after he was convicted of failing to report a known pedophile priest to police, the latest high-ranking churchman to fall in the global reckoning over clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.