CathNews
March 16, 2010
http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2010/03/16/pope-plans-letter-amid-abuse-reports/
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI plans to issue a pontifical letter later this week in the wake of increasing reports of clergy sex abuse in European nations, media said quoting a Vatican official.
A top Vatican official Archbishop Rino Fisichella told an Italian newspaper on Monday that the zero-tolerance policy that Pope Benedict wanted to implement was a "moral obligation."
The Pope is expected to release his letter soon in response to decades of systematic abuse in church-run schools and other institutions in Ireland, a predominantly Roman Catholic country.
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Though it will be difficult for victims to obtain such large sums in Europe because of a more restrictive legal set-up or to initiate any legal proceedings against the erring priests because of a statute of limitations, the scandal, which is gathering momentum, is likely to cause much greater damage in Europe.
The abuse scandal has since spread to other European countries, including The Netherlands, Austria and most significantly Germany, the Pope's homeland, where as many as 170 people have broken their silence to complain.
Many media commentators and some liberal Catholics, such as Swiss theologian Hans Kueng, have blamed the marriage ban and strict celibacy rules for the recent scandals and called for the rule from the 12th century to be scrapped.
"Times have changed, and society too, and the Church will have to consider how this type of life can be maintained or what it has to change," said Salzburg Archbishop Alois Kothgasser on Austria's ORF television.
In a diocesan newsletter, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna said the Church had to ask difficult questions. "That includes the issue of celibacy and the personal development" of priests, he wrote.
Though none of the prelates advocated putting an end to celibacy, the Pope, known for his conservative views, has stubbornly refused to consider these suggestions.
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