Church abuse: Vatican speaks to protect Pope

As new details emerged on allegations of child sexual abuse by priests in the Munich archdiocese then led by Benedict....

As new details emerged on allegations of child sexual abuse by priests in the Munich archdiocese then led by Benedict,the Vatican spoke out on Saturday to protect the Pope against an aggressive campaign against him in Germany.

A high-ranking Vatican officer overseeing internal investigations acknowledged that 3,000 cases of suspected abuse of minors had come to its attention in the past decade,of which 20 per cent had been brought to trial in Vatican courts.

In a note read on Vatican Radio on Saturday,Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said it was evident that in recent days there are those who have tried,with a certain aggressive tenacity,in Regensburg and in Munich,to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse. He added,It is clear that those efforts have failed.

In Germany,a man who said he was sexually abused by a priest there in 1979 told a newspaper that when he later complained,the church tried to silence him.

Msgr Charles J Scicluna,the director of a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,the Vaticans doctrinal arm,dismissed as false and calumnious accusations that Benedict covered up abuse cases for four years before becoming Pope.

In unusually frank public interview that appeared on the front page of LAvvenire,the Italian Bishops Conference newspaper on Saturday,Monsignor Scicluna acknowledged that the Vatican had received about 3,000 accusations of abuse by priests of minors in the past decade,80 per cent from the US.

In Germany,new details emerged on Saturday about a case in the Munich Archdiocese that the church has acknowledged it made serious mistakes in handling. Pope Benedict XVI,then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger,was head of the archdiocese at the time.

Story continues below this ad

The daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said that the pastor previously identified as H sexually abused an 11-year-old boy in 1979,including by forcing him to perform oral sex. According to the victim,identified by the newspaper as Wilfried F,the abuse occurred after a vacation trip to the Eifel Mountains.

Wilfried F told Süddeutsche that in 2006 he discovered that the priest was still working with parishioners,including children. He sent an e-mail message to ask the priest whether he had a guilty conscience and to ask for compensation. A few days later,the police came to his door to question him about blackmailing the priest he said abused him,the newspaper reported. The blackmail case against Wilfried F was dismissed in May 2008. Wilfried F told the newspaper that the church wanted to silence me.