Pope skirts paedophilia scandal
2010-04-04 16:59
Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI kept mum on paedophile priest scandals rocking the Roman Catholic Church during his Easter Mass on Sunday as Christians across the world marked the resurrection of Christ.
While condemning persecution and lamenting the "suffering" of Christian minorities in Iraq and Pakistan, Pope Benedict failed to mention any abuse by the Church's priests.
Rallying around the embattled head of the Roman Catholic Church in a rain-drenched St Peter's Square, the dean of the College of Cardinals told the pope in an unusual greeting: "The people of God are with you and do not allow themselves to be impressed by the idle chatter of the moment."
Cardinal Angelo Sodano was reprising the same phrase the pope used a week ago when he urged Christians "not be intimidated by the idle chatter of prevailing opinions".
The scandals have cast a pall over Easter, the most joyous day in the Christian calendar, commemorating the day when Jesus Christ is believed to have been resurrected.
In his "Urbi et Orbi" message the pope said humankind needed "a spiritual and moral conversion... to emerge from a profound crisis, one which requires deep change, beginning with consciences".
As tradition dictates, Benedict ended with greetings in 65 languages including Mongolian, Icelandic, and Aramaic, the language of Jesus still spoken in parts of the Middle East and Turkey.
In Jerusalem, thousands of Christian pilgrims streamed into the cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Easter at the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.
- SAPA
