Malta hosts pope under priest sex abuse cloud
VALLETTA — Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday the Roman Catholic Church had been wounded by sin as he flew to Malta on his first foreign trip since a wave of priest…
VALLETTA — Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday the Roman Catholic Church had been wounded by sin as he flew to Malta on his first foreign trip since a wave of priest sex abuse scandals broke in Europe and the United States."Malta loves Christ who loves his Church which is his body, even if this body is wounded by our sins," he told accompanying journalists in a direct allusion to the scandals.The pope's plane landed shortly after 1500 GMT after the brief flight from Rome to the deeply Catholic Mediterranean island country, where he is scheduled to stay just over 24 hours.Benedict also referred to illegal immigration which has hit this tiny nation hard with people crossing from Africa to Europe in fragile boats, calling it "a great challenge for our times, to which we must respond".The visit comes amid near-daily allegations of child-molesting priests in Europe or the United States, some homing in on the pope's role either as head of the Vatican's morals watchdog or earlier as archbishop of Munich.Under the pressure of increasingly hostile opinion over claims that the Vatican hierarchy including the pope himself helped protect predator priests, Benedict may hold an impromptu meeting with Maltese abuse victims, but far from the media spotlight.Malta, where one in three children under 16 attend Catholic schools, has itself been hit by allegations of abuse at the orphanage they attended.The smallest member of the European Union with a population of some 443,000, has also been scandalised by revelations that a suspected paedophile priest has retired here from Canada.Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said the pope would not bow to "media pressure" to meet with abuse victims and noted that his programme was "already very tight".The Vatican's top official handling sexual and physical abuse allegations against clergy, Charles Scicluna, is expected to meet victims in June.The Maltese Catholic Church revealed recently that a paedophilia "response team" it set up in 1999 had received allegations against 45 priests,
last modification 2010-04-17 20:45:19
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