Pope Says Church's Own Sins to Blame for Sex Scandal

This Associated Press video of May 11 says, in his most thorough admission of the Catholic Church's guilt in the clerical sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI said on Tuesday that the greatest persecution of the institution is born from the sins within the church and not from a campaign by outsiders.

Pope blames 'terrifying' sex abuse on Catholic Church

Lisboa: Papa Bento XVI, originally uploaded by Dragom.

Nick Squires in Lisbon, Telegraph News on 11 May 2010

The Pope has laid the blame for the "truly terrifying" clerical sex abuse crisis squarely on the Catholic Church for the first time as he arrived in Portugal for a four-day visit.

In Lisbon, Pope Benedict XVI waved to enthusiastic crowds turned out to welcome the Pope as he proceeded through the city in his white, bullet-proof 'Popemobile'.

Benedict XVI said that "the greatest persecution of the church does not come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church."

His remarks were a repudiation of a string of senior figures of Vatican who in recent months have attributed the scandal to a shadowy conspiracy mounted by outsiders, ranging from a hostile media to liberals within the Church.

The Vatican has been strongly criticised for trying to apportion blame elsewhere and there was outrage when a close ally of the pope, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, last month dismissed the child abuse allegations as "petty gossip".

In some of his strongest comments yet on the crisis which has dismayed Catholics around the world, the 83-year-old pontiff said that while the Church had suffered from problems of its own making in the past, the scale of the present challenge today was "truly terrifying".

"The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also the necessity of justice," he said.

The Catholic Church has been convulsed by allegations that many bishops did too little, too late to stop the activities of paedophile priests, first in the United States and Australia and more recently in Ireland and continental Europe.

The turmoil has claimed the heads of several senior clerics, including three Irish bishops, a Belgian bishop who admitted that he had sexually abused a boy, and most recently, Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg in Germany, who has also been accused of sexually abusing children.

There have been no reported cases of sex abuse in Portugal, unlike in Malta, where last month the Pope met a group of men who said they were abused by priests in a Church-run orphanage on the island.

In Lisbon, enthusiastic crowds turned out to welcome the Pope as he proceeded through the city in his white, bullet-proof "Popemobile".

Schoolchildren waved flags bearing Benedict's smiling face and shouted "Viva o Papa" – Long Live the Pope.

A warship at the mouth of the Tagus River gave a booming 21-gun salute and presidential guards provided a mounted guard of honour.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn attacks fellow cardinal for 'covering up' abuse case

Kardinal Schönborn, originally uploaded by islamkritik.

Photo: Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, 65, who is seen as a possible future Pope

In an article titled ‘Vatican cardinal attacks fellow cardinal for 'covering up' abuse case, The Telegraph reported from Rome on 10 May 2010, ‘A senior Vatican cardinal has launched an attack on a fellow cardinal, accusing him over "covering up" a sex abuse case, in the latest setback for the Roman Catholic Church.

Read the full report below:

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, 65, who is seen as a possible future Pope, slammed his fellow prince of the Church, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 83, for dismissing the paedophile priest crisis as "petty gossip."

Cardinal Schoenborn said that Cardinal Sodano, who is currently Dean of the Vatican's all powerful College of Cardinals, had attempted to cover up of a high profile Austrian sex abuse case.

Vienna Cardinal Schoenborn told Austrian Catholic news agency Kauthpress: "The days of cover up are over. For a long while the Church's principle of forgiveness was falsely interpreted and was in favour of those responsible and not the victims."

He added that during the 1990's when Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, the leader of Austria's Catholics was accused of sex abuse a "track of Vatican diplomacy" had muddied the investigation and led to a cover up.

Cardinal Schoenborn said Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Josef Ratzinger and head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had immediately pushed for an investigative commission when abuse allegations against Cardinal Groer emerged.

But Cardinal Schoenborn said that the then Vatican Secretary of State at the time, Cardinal Angelo Sodano indirectly blocked the attempts and Cardinal Groer had simply faded into the background.

The scandal hit Cardinal who was accused of abusing boys, resigned in 1998 without ever admitting his guilt, without any official Church punishment and he died five years later.

Cardinal Schoenborn also accused Cardinal Sodano, of causing "massive harm" to victims when he dismissed claims of priest abuse as "petty gossip" during Easter Sunday Mass at St Peter's.

Two months ago Cardinal Schoenborn acknowledged church guilt during a service for victims in which he openly addressed attempts to cover up abuse.

There was no official comment from the Vatican and its official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano carried no coverage of Cardinal Schoenborn's attack.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk