Jeffrey Anderson, the attorney most responsible for the waves of litigation that have revealed the church's secrets on abusive priests, is even more optimistic.

CNN: One month in, Pope Francis is on the right track

The original complaint made to the church in 2008 concerned the alleged abusive behaviour of a churchwarden.

BBC: Jersey Dean leads States prayers

Brady, who personally read the pope's letter to his congregation in Armagh Saturday, apologized this week for his role in the church's investigation of an abusive priest in 1975.

CNN: Pope's Irish child abuse letter fails to calm storm

The cardinal began to draft new church laws making it easier for the Vatican to remove abusive priests from the ministry, but the new laws weren't implemented until the early 2000s, after the sex-abuse crisis emerged in Boston.

WSJ: Pope Defended Church Teachings

On Good Friday of 2005 just days before Pope John Paul II's death the future pope condemned the "filth" among church ranks, a comment that many faithful perceived as an unprecedented rebuke of abusive priests.

WSJ: Pope Defended Church Teachings

Two years later in 2010 -- the same year that he issued new rules aimed at stopping abuse -- he said abusive priests "disfigured their ministry" and brought "profound shame and regret" on the church.

CNN: Too tired to go on, Pope Benedict resigns

Abusive priests had "disfigured their ministry" and brought "profound shame and regret" on the church, Benedict said in 2010, the same year he issued new rules aimed at stopping abuse.

CNN: Too tired to go on, Pope Benedict resigns

Onlookers said Henson, the partner of singer and TV presenter Charlotte Church, was seen messing about with pool balls on the three tables in the pub and was abusive when anyone took issue with him.

BBC: Rugby stars 'sorry' for night out