The $660-million legal settlement of sex-abuse cases against the Los Angeles archdiocese shows that the problem was "devastating in scale," the Vatican Secretary of State has said.Speaking to reporters in Lorenzago di Cadore, Italy - where he is staying with the vacationing Pope Benedict XVI - Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone conceded that he was shocked by the number of priests involved in the sex-abuse scandal.
Nevertheless, he said that the problem must be kept in perspective, noting that while the absolute number of priests involved was alarming, the perpetrators represented only "a very small minority" of the Catholic clergy.
Earlier in the week the director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, had voiced the hope that the settlement in Los Angeles would allow the archdiocese to "close a painful chapter and look ahead."
The Vatican spokesman observed that the Church is "clearly pained pained by the suffering of the victims and their families."
Father Lombardi went on to say that the Catholic Church was not the only institution in society to discover sexual abuse among its members, and added that the Church now hopes to lead a worldwide campaign against the abuse of children.
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