Greg Burke, FOX News
A top Vatican cardinal denounced what he called “petty gossip” surrounding Pope Benedict and accusations that the pontiff mishandled church sex abuse cases.
“Holy Father, the people of God are on your side, and do not allow themselves to be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials which sometime shake the community of believers,” Cardinal Angelo Sodano said at the start of the Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
Sodano is a top-ranking cardinal and the former Secretary of State under both Benedict and John Paul II. His blunt comments reflect the opinion of many inside the Vatican regarding reports linking Benedict to sex abuse cases.
The Vatican newspaper, the L’Osservatore Romano, called accusations against Benedict a “vile operation of defamation.”
The New York Times has taken the lead in trying to link Benedict to two cases of sex abuse, one from when he was Archbishop in Munich and another when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
But the Times has been flatly contradicted by some of those directly involved in the cases, and its reporting is undergoing increasing scrutiny.
Sex abuse cases have rocked the Catholic Church in Europe in recent months, especially in Ireland and Germany.
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