As the Catholic church has to find millions to pay compensation to victims of clergy abuse, the excuses being trotted out by the hierarchy are staggeringly creative. Archbishop of Westminster the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, leader of the Catholics in England and Wales, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme, “The level of abuse in the Church is actually quite small in terms of the overall levels of abuse in any country.” Now Pope Benedict, in his pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, blames the abuse on “the creeping influence of liberal, secular society for weakening resolve against it.”