A top Vatican official says the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal has caused Pope Benedict great pain, the Associated Press reports. (With all the allegations reported lately, spanning from Mexico to India and including the pontiff’s own brother in Germany, I would be far more surprised to learn that he felt great. But, not every news story can be a “man bites dog” kind of piece.)

It’s hard to sum up the far-reaching scandal in just one article at this point, but the AP goes into some detail about the late Rev. Marciel Maciel, the discredited founder of the Legionnaires of Christ, who turns out to have molested young seminarians and fathered at least one child. It also mentions the recent disclosure that Georg Mueller, former bishop of Norway’s Catholic Church, resigned last year because he had admitted to abusing a boy when he was a priest.

On the bright side, Pope Benedict has just been invited to visit Chile, in recognition of the church’s help after the recent earthquake there, in 2012. Makes you wonder: is it easier to rebuild a religious institution damaged by a physical catastrophe or a spiritual one?

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