French bishops kneel in penance over Catholic church’s role in child abuse

Conference in Lourdes recognised that church had allowed abuses to become systemic'

Senior members of France's Roman Catholic hierarchy knelt in a show of penance at the shrine of Lourdes on Saturday, a day after bishops accepted the church's responsibility for decades of child abuse.

But some of the survivors of the abuse - and lay members supporting them - said they were still waiting for details of compensation and of a comprehensive reform of the church.