Pope Benedict XVI kept silent on the paedophilia scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church during his Easter mass Sunday as Christians across the world marked the resurrection of Christ.
The leader of the world's one billion Catholics condemned the persecution of Christian minorities in Iraq and Pakistan, but failed to mention escalating allegations of decades of child 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: "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 echoing the pope's words a week ago when he urged Christians "not be intimidated by the idle chatter of prevailing opinions". In Paris, the head of the Catholic Church in France, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, denounced a "smear campaign aimed at the pope," who has come under personal scrutiny for failing to act against abusers in the past.
The French archbishop insisted it was Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger, who "as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, encouraged bishops to take action against paedophilia by systematically informing Rome of such cases."
Belgium's Andre Joseph Leonard said in his Easter homily the Church had mismanaged the crisis "with a guilty silence". Germany's top archbishop, Robert Zollitsch, for his part, said: "Today particularly we must set out together and examine inconceivable events, awful crimes, the Church's dark aspects as well as our shadowy sides." In Ireland - where the first cases of mass abuse were revealed - demonstrators tried to interrupt Easter mass at Dublin's Pro Cathedral with a shoe protest in honour of child abuse victims, state broadcaster RTE said.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was heckled by abuse survivors, holding placards that read: "Hypocrites for Jesus. Catholic church rapes, abuses, destroys children and covers it up, covers it up, covers it up." The international scandal cast a dark shadow over Easter, supposedly the most joyous day in the Christian calendar, commemorating the day when Jesus Christ is believed to have been resurrected.
In St Peter's Square, the pope appealed for "a spiritual and moral conversion" of humankind to wrest it from "deep crisis," in his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message.
Benedict called for an end to African conflicts - in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Nigeria - and condemned "a dangerous resurgence" of drug trafficking crimes in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also offered solace to the people of Haiti and Chile as they recover from massive earthquakes.
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