Vatican Says Popes Authority Still Strong Despite Sex Abuse Scandal, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2010

Vatican Says Pope's Authority Still Strong Despite Sex Abuse Scandal

Los Angeles Times
March 28, 2010

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-pope28-2010mar28,0,296756.story

VATICAN CITY -- Top church officials have shown a commitment to 'combat and root out the blight of abuse wherever it appears,' a spokesman says.

The Vatican said Saturday that recent attacks on the church over its handling of clerical sex abuse cases have been harmful but that the pope's authority had not been weakened.

Instead, the Vatican spokesman said, Pope Benedict XVI's authority and the commitment of the Vatican doctrinal and disciplinary office "have been confirmed in their support and guidance to bishops to combat and root out the blight of abuse wherever it appears."

Pope Benedict XVI waves at the end of a meeting this week with youths from Rome and the Lazio region in preparation for World Youth Day at the Vatican. A cardinal says attacks on the pope over the sex abuse scandal are unjustified.
Photo by Alberto Pizzoli

"The way in which the church deals with it is crucial for her moral credibility," the spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said on Vatican Radio.

Revelations of the sexual abuse of children by priests at Catholic institutions have emerged across Europe, including in Benedict's native Germany.

The pope himself has come under fire for a case dating to his tenure as archbishop of Munich and another dating to his stint as the head of the Vatican office responsible for disciplining priests.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a top Vatican official, acknowledged in an interview published Saturday that church authorities had on occasion maintained silence on cases of sex abuse. But he defended the pope, saying Benedict "was the first one who, already as a cardinal, felt the need for new, harsher rules."

Attacks on the pope go "beyond any limit of justice and loyalty," Kasper said.

The cardinal, however, called for a cleanup and said the church must be more alert and brave in dealing with any incidents of sex abuse.

He said a growing awareness of the problem made the path of renewal "irreversible."

Until recently, Benedict had received high marks for his handling of sex abuse.