A mass in Washington DC, celebrating five years since Benedict XVI became the pope, had to be changed at the last minute when it was discovered that the priest who was originally due to give the mass, was involved in the church's sex-abuse scandal.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon of Colombia, who was once on the shortlist for pope, sent a letter to a French bishop congratulating him for not reporting a priest who raped and abused a dozen boys.

Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar reports from Washington.