The sex-abuse scandal.

* The Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to settle lawsuits brought by more than 550 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. The $660 million settlement will be the largest payout made by any single diocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal began.

According to Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, Cardinal Roger Mahony can consider himself lucky, as some predictions had the payout at over $1.5 billion if the case had been heard in court. In any case, the diocese will have to pay out only $250 million; insurance companies and individual orders will cover the rest. Mahony avoided questioning in open court where he would have had either to commit perjury to cover up his involvement in shuttling predatory priests around the diocese or to admit such complicity.

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* The Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that the vast majority of lay Catholics are unaware of the efforts undertaken by U.S. bishops to prevent and respond to allegations of sex abuse. In a survey of over 1,000 self-identified Catholics, participants were presented 13 specific policies that were put in place following the sexual-abuse scandal. Respondents were largely supportive of the measures taken, but even the most well-known policies, such as zero-tolerance and reporting abuse to the authorities, were known by less than half. After learning of all the policies, 71 percent rated the bishops' handling of the issue as only "fair," and two-thirds said the policies "should go further."

* In a move to take the strategy for responding to clergy sexual abuse beyond apologies, the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland has established the National Board for Child Protection and appointed Ian Elliott, the director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Belfast, as its first chief executive officer. Elliott has specialized in social work for over 30 years and has led a major reform program for Northern Ireland's child protection service. The board, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Anthony Hederman, has been charged with implementing child protection measures and is overseen by the bishops' conference, the Conference of Religious in Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union.

* Two women who sued the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., after being molested by Father Mark Campobello in the late 1990s were awarded $2.2 million. Despite being reported by one of the women to diocese authorities, Fr. Campobello continued to serve at a church in Belvidere until the time of his arrest several months later. In 2003, the priest pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, and the diocese, after being held in contempt for refusing to release personal data on Campobello, settled out of court.

* Two victims, a man and woman in their late 20s, were awarded s11.45 million after former youth minister Matthew Maiello pleaded guilty to raping and sodomizing them while they were in their teens. The jury ruled that the defendants--the Diocese of Rockville Centre and St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church and its pastor--acted "with reckless disregard for the safety of others in the negligent hiring and retention" of Maiello.

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* In April, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ended the first Catholic diocesan bankruptcy trial. Immediately after the negotiation of payment for all remaining sex-abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Portland, the approval of a $75 million settlement and a financial reorganization plan was announced. The same day, bankruptcy proceedings in the Diocese of Spokane came to an end when a $48 million settlement of sexual abuse claims by over 160 victims was agreed upon.