Vatican Dismisses Child Abuse Scandal As Petty Gossip As Row Overshadows Easter Services, Mail, April 4, 2010

Vatican Dismisses Child Abuse Scandal As 'Petty Gossip' As Row Overshadows Easter Services

Mail
April 4, 2010

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1263485/Vatican-hails-Pope-solid-rock-does-listen-petty-gossip-child-abuse-scandal-overshadows-Easter.html

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican defended the Pope today, insisting he would not be intimidated by 'petty gossip' about the child abuse scandal during a special Easter Sunday statement.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano gave a speech of solidarity at the start of the Easter service in Rome in what is believed to have been the first time in recent memory protocol at the ceremony has been changed.

'Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials that sometimes assail the community of believers,' Sodano said.

He told the Pope 'the Church is with you' and hailed Benedict as a 'solid rock' that holds up the Church, prompting thousands in the rainy St Peter's Square to cheer.

Pope Benedict giving his traditional 'Urbi et Orbi' Easter message today

The senior cardinal also listed those who support the pope, particularly 'the 400,000 priests who generously serve' in schools, hospitals and missions around the world

The change in protocol shows how much pressure the Vatican is feeling over the scandal and claims of a possibly cover-up that have inched closer to Pope Benedict himself.

In his own Easter address hours later, Benedict looked weary at times and did not mention the scandal.

It came as senior clergy in the UK used their Easter sermons to acknowledge the guilt the Catholic Church feels and apologising on its behalf.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who yesterday sparked a storm for declaring the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has lost 'all credibility', steered clear of the row in his address.

Instead, he spoke about cases of 'bureaucratic silliness' over displays of religious symbols, such as nurse Shirley Chaplin who was asked to removed her crucifix necklace.

But he did apologised again during a radio interview this morning, insisting he had not meant to cause any offence.

'I wasn't intending to criticise or condemn but to point out a really tragic situation and a huge challenge that faces the Church in Ireland at the moment which many of them are rising to with great courage,' he told the BBC.

He said he had phoned Diarmuid Martin, Dublin's Archbishop, yesterday to express his 'deep sorrow and regret for difficulties which may have been created' by his words.

'I was saying sorry that I had made life more difficult for the Archbishop of Dublin and his colleagues who have indeed been trying to tackle this crisis with great imagination and great honesty,' he said.

'The tragic situation is that there is a huge challenge that the Church faces. This has been said by everybody, by the leadership of the Irish Church, it's been said by the Pope. It's a crisis that affects everybody.

'We've all had to live with some of these crises, some of the challenges posed by abuse that hasn't been addressed in the past.

'People throughout the Churches are realising that in the past we have not taken this seriously enough and there is a great deal of hurt to be dealt with.'

Pope Benedict blesses the crowds at the end of his Urbi et Orbi speech

Cardinal Angelo Sodano hailed the Pope as a 'solid rock' in the Church in a strong defence by the Vatican

But the scandal overshadowed services elshewhere with Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols admitting 'serious sins' had been committed in the Catholic community.

'For our part, we have been reflecting on them deeply, acknowledging our guilt and our need for forgiveness. This is the journey of Holy Week. Indeed, to appreciate the message of this great Christian feast we have to begin with our own sin and shame,' he said.

Head of the Church in Scotland Cardinal Keith O'Brien said: 'Many evils have been committed throughout the world, particularly with regard to the sexual abuse of children and young people.

'I myself as long ago as 2002 indicated my own personal abhorrence of this terrible crime and said at that time that I apologised to anyone who has suffered any abuse at the hands of anyone representing the Catholic Church. I restate and reiterate that apology today.'

He added: 'Crimes against children have indeed been committed and any Catholics who were aware of such crimes and did not act to report them brings shame on us all.

'We can take no comfort from the fact that only a small percentage of priests committed such crimes - the impact of their sinful acts is very large - their actions harmed the lives of their victims, caused great hatred to be directed at their innocent brother priests and left ordinary Catholics demoralised and confused.

'One might say that there has been a great "public humiliation" of the Church, as in some way or another we realise that we have not been as alert as we should have been to the evils being perpetrated around us, whatever our particular position.

'Those involved in these crimes must apologise and ask forgiveness from those who have been offended as well as, of course, from Almighty God himself.'

He insisted: 'Whatever flaws or personal failings afflict them, it remains the case that the overwhelming majority of priests and politicians are honourable and honest - seeking to live out their beliefs and serve society around them.'

The Pope is helped up to the altar for the Easter Mass

The Archbishop of Canterbury had told BBC Radio 4's Start The Week, to be broadcast tomorrow, that recent revelations about clerical child abuse had been a 'colossal trauma' for the Catholic Church, particularly in Ireland.

In his first comments on the crisis gripping the Vatican, he said: 'I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who said it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now.

'And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility -- that's not just a problem for the Church, but for everybody in Ireland.'

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams today. He steered clear of the scandal in his Easter address

The Archbishop was forced to apologise last night for declaring that the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland had lost 'all credibility' over the child abuse scandal.

The comments provoked a furious backlash from Irish church leaders, who said they were 'undeserved' and 'profoundly disheartening'.

They also threatened to undermine relations between the Anglican and Catholic Churches in the run-up to the Pope's visit to Britain in the autumn.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has been deeply shaken by revelations that paedophile priests got away with decades of horrific child sex abuse.

Pressure mounted this month on its leader, the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, after he admitted being at a meeting where children abused by notorious convicted sex offender Fr Brendan Smyth were forced to take a vow of silence.

The abuse scandal has also engulfed Pope Benedict, who faced claims that he failed to investigate properly a serial abuser in a children's home for the deaf in the American state of Wisconsin in the late Nineties.

The Church's handling of abuse is likely to become a major issue during the Pope's four-day visit to Britain in September, and Dr Williams's comments will do nothing to dispel the controversy.

Speaking about the visit on the same programme, Dr Williams said it was important for the Pope to be given the chance to speak in Britain as a valued partner, but that was 'about it'.

He also predicted that few disaffected Anglicans would take up Pope Benedict's offer of conversion to Rome.

On Friday, the Pope's personal preacher likened criticism of the Catholic Church over the sex abuse scandal to 'collective violence' suffered by the Jews.

Today, Father Raniero Cantalamessa apologised in an interview with an Italian newspaper.

'If - and it was not my intention to do so - I hurt the sensitivities of Jews and victims of paedophilia, I am truly sorry and I ask for forgiveness,' he said.

HOW THEY CELEBRATED EASTER AROUND THE WORLD:

Macedonian orthodox believers sing as they hold candles during the Easter mass at St. Jovan Bigorski monastery

Pakistani Christian girls display their hands decorated with Bangles and painted with Henna as they celebrate Easter

Head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Metropolitan Nikolaj, conducts an Easter service in Sarajevo Cathedral

Spain King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia with son Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Leticia and their two daughters Leonor and Sofia before the traditional Easter Mass of Resurection in Palma de Mallorca