By Lachlan Cartwright and Leonard Greene
New York Post
March 29, 2010
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/dolan_frond_of_pope_FFmA6TjljKO6ntnfN1UsxM
NEW YORK -- The pope is being crucified over untrue allegations that he condoned the acts of pedophile priests, Archbishop Timothy Dolan told worshippers in St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday.
The charges being hurled at Pope Benedict XVI are the "the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar" suffered by Christ, Dolan said in his first Palm Sunday Mass as New York archbishop.
Discussing child abuse by clergy, he added, "The dramatic progress that the Catholic Church in the United States has made . . . could never have happened without the insistence and support of the very man now being daily crowned with thorns by groundless innuendo.
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| PALM BEFORE THE STORM: Pope Benedict XVI is obscured behind woven leaves at yesterday's Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican. |
"Sunday Mass is hardly the place to document the inaccuracy, bias and hyperbole of such aspersions," Dolan told parishioners, "but Sunday Mass is indeed the time for Catholics to pray for Benedict our pope."
"The recent tidal wave of headlines about abuse of minors by some few priests -- this time in Ireland, Germany and a rerun of an old story from Wisconsin -- has knocked us to our knees again," he said.
Dolan called the transgressions of pedophile priests a "vicious sin and nauseating crime."
He added, "No one has been more vigorous in cleansing the church of the effects of this sickening sin than the man we now call Pope Benedict XVI."
The Wisconsin scandal made news again last week after it was reported that before he became pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger declined, despite urgings from American bishops, to defrock a priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf boys.
The future pope led a Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has authority over priests accused of wrongdoing.
The pope is under increasing pressure following claims that he covered up other incidents of sexual abuse by priests when he was serving as an archbishop in Germany.
Meanwhile, at the Vatican, Benedict did not directly mention the scandal in his own homily.
But one of the prayers, recited in Portuguese, was "for the young and for those charged with educating them and protecting them."
Benedict did hint that he would not be bullied about his alleged role in the growing scandal.
Jesus Christ, Benedict said, guides the faithful "toward the courage that doesn't let us be intimidated by the chatting of dominant opinions, towards patience that supports others."
Though parishioners applauded Dolan for 20 seconds after his statement, his comparison between the pope's suffering and that of Jesus drew a strong rebuke from victims of pedophile priests
"Dolan's doing what church officials have done for centuries; put their own comfort and reputations above the safety of kids and the healing of victims," said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Contact: lachlan.cartwright@nypost.com
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