Sexual Abuse Not Just a Catholic Problem - Vatican

Sexual abuse of children is not just a Catholic Church problem and other institutions should take steps to acknowledge and deal with such "wickedness" within their own ranks, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The Vatican's chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, also said the record $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and victims of sexual abuse was an attempt to "close a painful chapter and look forward".

"The Church is above all clearly pained by the suffering of the victims and their families, by the deep wounds caused by the grave and inexcusable behaviour of some of its members," Lombardi said.

"It has decided to commit itself in every way to avoid a repetition of such wickedness," he said, adding that the Church now had a "a policy of prevention and creation of an ever more secure atmosphere for children and young people in all aspects of (its) pastoral programmes".

Lombardi reaffirmed a position taken by other Catholic Church leaders in the past -- that other organised religions and institutions should also deal with paedophilia as publicly as the Catholic Church has been forced to by various scandals.

"The problem of the abuse of childhood and its adequate protection certainly does not regard only the (Catholic) Church, but also many other institutions and it is right that these take the necessary decisions as well," he said.

Lombardi said the Church was aware of its educational responsibilities to youth and intended to be "a protagonist in the struggle against paedophilia", which he said was on the rise worldwide.


ABUSE DATING BACK TO THE 1940s

The Los Angeles decision involved 508 plaintiffs in cases dating back to the 1940s. The pre-trial settlement means Cardinal Roger Mahony will not have to testify in court.

The settlement reached on Saturday after 4 1/2 years of negotiations came before the first trial was due to begin on Monday. Victims' attorneys would have called Mahony to testify about the church hierarchy's protection of abusive priests.

The Los Angeles settlement dwarfs other landmark payouts. The Archdiocese of Boston, where the U.S. scandal erupted in 2002, reached a 2003 deal for 550 people worth $85 million.

Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, was forced to resign in disgrace in December 2002.

Leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church were found to have moved priests who abused minors to new parishes instead of defrocking them or reporting them to authorities.

In his interview with Vatican Radio, Lombardi spoke of the "sacrifices" the settlement would impose on the archdiocese.

The settlement funds will come from the archdiocese selling real estate assets, including the archdiocese's headquarters, insurers and various Catholic religious orders.

Before his election as pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger went out on a limb to decry the "filth" in the Church.

Benedict, who was elected in 2005, has taken a tougher stand on sexual abuse in the Church than his predecessor. Last year he disciplined Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the 86-year-old founder of the conservative Legionaries of Christ, who had been accused of sexually abusing boys decades ago.