The Vatican said Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna would travel to Chile “to listen to those who have expressed the desire to provide elements” about the case of Bishop Juan Barros.

The Barros controversy dominated Francis’ recent trip to Chile. Even one of his closest advisers, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, publicly rebuked thePope for his treatment of victims.

Bishop Barros was a protege of the Rev Fernando Karadima, a charismatic and politically powerful priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican for sexually abusing minors in 2011.

His victims testified to Chilean prosecutors that Bishop Barros and other priests in the El Bosque community saw Karadima kissing youngsters and were aware of his perversions, but did nothing about them.

After Karadima was sanctioned, Chile’s bishops were so intent on trying to stem the fallout from the scandal that they persuaded the Vatican to have Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops resign and take a year-long sabbatical, according to a 2015 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Francis stepped in and put a stop to the plan, arguing that there was no proof against them. He overruled the local bishops’ objections and in January 2015 appointed Bishop Barros to head the diocese of Osorno. Bishop Barros’ presence there has badly split the dioceses ever since, with both laity and priests rejecting him and protesting against his appointment.

The issue haunted Francis after he…

End Hunger UK, a coalition of anti-food poverty charities surveyed over 2,000 adults, which revealed shocking levels of “hidden hunger”.

Alison Inglis-Jones is from the Trussell Trust, a Christian network of food banks which has joined the End Hunger UK campaign.

Speaking on Premier’s News Hour she explained how hunger can be ‘hidden’ when friends and family don’t notice.

“Some people who are just living on the edge – who are in work, but are genuinely concerned that they may not have enough money to get through to see them through the next few days,” she said.

“So there’s obvious hunger – people coming to food banks but there’s hunger of people who are just getting by.”

Christian Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck, whose bill urging the Government to measure food insecurity will be read in Parliament on Friday, said: “Now is the time for the Government to sit up and tackle the growing issue of hunger in our country.

“We know that 1.1 million food parcels are given out in Trussell Trust food banks alone but these figures are clearly the tip of the iceberg – the United Nations has estimated over eight million people in the UK are food insecure, approximately 2,000 food banks and food bank centres are in operation, rising levels of hospital admissions due to malnutrition cost the NHS £12 billion per year and there are record levels of in-work poverty.”

The coalition said its figures revealed a “hidden hunger crisis”…

Michael Murphy, known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben, abused children in the 1970s and 1980s when he worked at St Joseph’s School in Tranent, East Lothian.

He was jailed for seven years in April 2016 at the High Court in Edinburgh after being found guilty of physically and sexually abusing eight boys.

The physical abuse he carried out included habitual and sustained physical punishment as well as the administration of electric shocks, the Crown Office said at the conclusion of the case.

The anonymous survivor, now in his 50s, is suing East Lothian Council and De La Salle Brothers and is seeking damages estimated at a six-figure sum for the pain caused by the former schoolmaster.

He said Brother Benedict “ruined not just my childhood but my adult life”.

He added: “He abused his position while working alongside the Council and the Church to fulfil his own sick desires.

“I hope now to be able to find the means to help me rebuild my life.”

Murphy, from Liss in Hampshire, also had a previous conviction for 10 earlier assaults on boys when he worked at St Ninian’s School, Gartmore, near Stirling, between 1960 and 1969 which resulted in a 12-month jail sentence.

He has been placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

Kim Leslie, Partner and Specialist Abuse Lawyer at Digby Brown Solicitors, said: “Following the conviction of Brother Benedict we are now…