The Vatican is circling the wagons in defense Pope .
"The pope on Sunday explicitly didn't address the allegations of sexual abuse by priests that have ripped through Europe in recent months and reignited controversy in the U.S. Benedict remained seated as Cardinal Sodano spoke, facing the large crowd and gripping a golden staff.
Moments later, the pope appeared in the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking the square where he delivered his traditional Easter Urbi et Orbi message.
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'Even these days humanity needs the salvation of the Gospel to emerge from a crisis that is deep and that requires profound change, starting from the conscience,' he said. The pope also called for an 'exodus, not of superficial adjustments, but of a moral and spiritual conversion.'
Throughout Holy Week, top clerics around the world have taken to their pulpits to defend the pope, at times in language that risked exacerbating the controversy. In an interview published in the Milan-daily Corriere della Sera, the preacher of the papal household apologized for likening criticism of the pope to anti-Semitism during a Good Friday sermon in St. Peter's Basilica attended by the pope. That sermon drew strong criticism from abuse victims and Jewish leaders over the weekend. 'If, against my every intention, I jarred the sensibilities of the Jewish people and the victims of pedophilia, I sincerely regret it and I apologize,' Father Cantalamessa was quoted as saying.
Hundreds of people across Europe, including the pope's homeland of Germany, have come forward this year alleging they were victims of sexual abuse decades ago. One case involves a priest known to church officials as a sex abuser who was transferred to the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising in 1980 with the approval of Benedict XVI, who was then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger. The priest was convicted of sexually abusing minors in 1986 and received a suspended sentence. He wasn't definitively suspended, however, until March this year, when the archdiocese disclosed his case publicly." ...more
