abusing a minor

For 25 remarkable minutes, the shepherd of the world's 1 billion Catholics met in Washington, D.C., with a handful of victims in the worst scandal to ever tarnish the U.S. Catholic Church. One man, abused as an altar boy, said he placed his hand over Pope Benedict XVI's heart as he pleaded with him to fix the problem of sexual abuse of minors. The pontiff apologized to his guests for not being perfectly fluent in English, and ''for everything,'' according to another victim. Plans for the secret meeting were kept quiet. But two Boston-area victims of abuse shared details of the meeting in interviews late Thursday with the Associated Press.

A prosecutor said Tuesday she has asked a Brazilian judge to indict a U.S. couple on charges of sexually abusing children at a nudist colony in Brazil, and police say hundreds of photos of young boys engaged in homosexual acts were found in their home. Prosecutor Natalia Cagliari said Tuesday she was seeking the indictments of Frederic Calvin Louderback, 63, of San Diego, and his girlfriend Barbara Anner, 72, from Georgia for ''the sexual abuse of children, corruption of minors, and conspiracy.'' She is also seeking the indictments of Andre Ricardo Herdy and Cleci Jaeger, a Brazilian couple suspected of helping the Americans, and the parents of three boys who were allegedly abused sexually.