Catholic Church must compensate abuse victims: Colombia court

Colombia's Supreme Court has ruled that the Catholic Church must compensate two victims of a priest convicted of sexual abuse of minors. The court ruled on Thursday that the Church must pay $22,300 (64 million Colombian pesos) to the victims, now aged 15 and 16, as well as $13,200 to their parents, as well as $5,600 to each of their siblings. The Diocese of Libano-Honda, in Colombia's northern Tolima department, had filed a petition in 2011 against a ruling ordering them to compensate the victims of convicted priest Luis Enrique Padua. In 2010 Padua was sentenced to 18 years in prison for abusing the minors, who were seven and eight at the time, in church buildings. The court's ruling Thursday rejects that appeal.