Pope Opens Holy Week Amid Abuse Crisis, Cape Cod Times, March 28, 2010

Pope Opens Holy Week Amid Abuse Crisis

Cape Cod Times
March 28, 2010

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100328/NEWS11/100329772/-1/NEWSMAP

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI has opened the church's solemn Holy Week amid increasing questions about his own handling of cases of sexual abuse of children by priests.

In this April 8, 2005 file photo, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, blesses the coffin containing the body of Pope John Paul II, during the funeral mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Vatican is facing one of its gravest crises of modern times as sex abuse scandals move ever closer to former Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI - threatening not only his own legacy but also that of his revered predecessor Pope John Paul II. Benedict took a much harder stance on sex abuse than John Paul II when he assumed the papacy five years ago, disciplining a senior cleric championed by the Polish pontiff and defrocking others under a new policy of zero tolerance. But the impression remains of a woefully slowfooted church and of a pope who bears responsibility for allowing pedophile priests to keep their parishes. In an editorial Friday March 26, 2010, the National Catholic Reporter in the United States called on Benedict to answer questions about his role "in the mismanagement" of sex abuse cases, not only in the current crisis but during his tenure in the 1980s as archbishop of Munich and then as head of the Vatican's doctrinal and disciplinary office.
Photo by Andrew Medichini

Benedict's procession entered St. Peter's Square on Sunday at the start of Palm Sunday Mass. The pontiff, in crimson and golden vestments, waved to the throngs of faithful waving palm fronds and olive branches.

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

This year, the most solemn week on the liturgical calendar has been stained by one of the worst church crises in decades.