ROME
Irish Times

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to celebrate his last Wednesday public audience in front of 150,000 faithful in St Peter’s Square this morning, clerical sex abuse continues to cast a dark shadow over the conclave.

Speaking in Rome yesterday, David Clohessy, spokesman for the US-based clerical sex abuse victims group, SNAP, called on the new pope to do a lot better than his two predecessors.

“We would like the new pope to have a lot of courage and make the safety of kids his number one job. Benedict was perfectly positioned to make the kind of changes that were needed, but it is obviously very, very tough to change things if wrongdoers are virtually never disciplined,” he said.

“I mean there is not a single bishop on the planet today who drives a smaller car or does his own laundry or takes fewer vacations because of…