Pope Benedict XVI wants Roman Catholics to ‘do penance’
April 16th, 2010 - 10:56 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt
Vatican City, Apr 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Pope Benedict XVI wants his devout followers to ‘do penance’. Critics think that this is an apparent reference to all the child sexual abuse scandals, that have hit the Vatican City recently.
Pope Benedict XVI said that the Roman Catholics were “under attack from the world which talks to us of our sins” and should see the necessity “to recognize what is wrong in our lives”. This is also first direct acknowledgement of the sexual abuse cases, in over a month by the Pope.
Just last month the German priest Father Peter Hullermann was suspended. He had been convicted in 1986 on charges of molesting boys, and now he was suspended as he broke a rule that banned him from working with children. When he was working with the archdiocese of Munich and Freising, then he abused children there. After he was convicted, he was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence in 1986. The current Pope was the archbishop in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
In March the Vatican was also left red-faced and embarrassed after reports and tapes surfaced of a gay sex scandal in the pious and holy city. The gay sex scandal involved two Vatican officials – a choir singer (Ghinedu Ehiem) and a civil engineer (Angelo Balducci) who is also a papal usher. The prosecutors have taped their conversations for over a year, and believe that they were an integral part of a network of gay prostitution.
- Sex abuser Priest - Father Peter Hullermann suspended - Mar 17, 2010
- Vatican embarrassed by a gay sex scandal - Mar 06, 2010
- Pope's former archdiocese in Germany faces 'tsunami' of sex abuse claims - Mar 20, 2010
- Vatican in the midst of a gay sex scandal - Mar 06, 2010
- Pope was told pedophile priest would get transfer - Mar 26, 2010
- Pope under fire for allowing paedophile priest to continue as minister - Mar 13, 2010
- Pope accepts bishop's resignation over sex scandal - Mar 25, 2010
- Pope denounces gay marriage - Mar 10, 2012
- Pope signs letter on child abuse cases in Ireland - Mar 19, 2010
- Third Irish bishop resigns over child abuse - Apr 22, 2010
- 4,000 cases of Catholic priests abusing kids probed - Feb 08, 2012
- Pope calls for Church to reflect on what led to abuse - Dec 21, 2010
- Gay Sex Scandal Leaves Vatican Embarrassed - Mar 06, 2010
- Pope Urges Catholics To Do Penance - Apr 16, 2010
- Pope accepts "humiliation" on abuse of minors by priests - Dec 21, 2010
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