Attacks on Pope over child abuse scandal are ‘akin to anti-Semitism’

[MikeWB]

Attacks on Pope over child abuse scandal are 'akin to anti-Semitism'

Richard Owen in Rome and Roger Boyes in Berlin

April 2, 2010

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... ttr=797093

The Pope's preacher today likened recent attacks on the pontiff over the Catholic sex abuse scandal to the "most shameful acts of anti-Semitism".

The controversial intervention by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household, came as one Catholic leader attempted to draw a line under the affair.

In Germany Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, said that the Church had committed serious mistakes and done too little to help the victims of priestly abuse.

"The caring responsibility towards the victims was insufficient in the past because of our own disappointment at the painful failure of the perpetrators, and out of a falsely understood concern for the standing of the church," he said.

But in Rome, as the Pope prepares to make a major address to the world for Easter Sunday, the Vatican is fighting back.

Father Cantalamessa, noting that this year the Jewish festival of Passover and Easter fell during the same week, said that Jews throughout history had been the victims of "collective violence" and drew a comparison with current attacks on the Church over the scandal.

Speaking during a ceremony at St Peter's Basilica commemorating Christ's Passion, he read to the congregation, which included the Pope, part of a letter that he had received from an unidentified Jewish friend, who said that he was following "with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the Pope and all the faithful of the whole world".

"The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," Father Cantalamessa said his friend wrote to him.

In the sermon he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying: "Unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained by the violence." But Father Cantalamessa said that he did not want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying: "There is sufficient talk outside of here."

The Vatican later distanced itself from Father Cantalamessa's remarks. Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, said Father Cantalamessa's remarks were "not the official position of the Church" and the papal preacher had not been speaking "as a Vatican official".

... the Vatican has also launched a counter-attack against the media for its reporting of the sex abuse scandal.

Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice, said that the Pope was the victim of "deceitful accusations."

Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said that the Pope was "suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar as did Jesus".

He said: "Truth and falsehood are scandalously mingled in the New York Times reconstructions. You begin to wonder, is there an agenda of bias here?"

However, David Clohessy, head of The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said: "It is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, deceitful and unhealthy to try to shift focus away from child sex crimes and cover-ups and onto the alleged motives of journalists." The New York Times said that none of its reports had been factually rebutted.

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