Fresh criticism of Vatican clouds Easter weekend

The Vatican yesterday rushed to defend the Pope's personal preacher after remarks likening attacks on the pontiff over the paedophile priest furore to anti-Semitism, further marring Easter weekend celebrations.

Jewish groups and those representing victims of abuse by Roman Catholic priests condemned Fr Raniero Cantalamessa for quoting the comments he said were made by a Jewish friend during his Good Friday sermon in St Peter's Basilica.

Rome's chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni told La Stampa yesterday: "It's an inappropriate parallel and of dubious taste."

The quoting of the remarks which Fr Cantalamessa said he received in a letter from an unnamed Jewish friend cast a new shadow over Pope Benedict XVI as he prepared to lead an Easter vigil in St Peter's later yesterday.

"The stereotyping, the transfer of personal responsibility and blame to a collective blame reminds me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," the letter said, according to Fr Cantalamessa.

The Vatican was quick to distance itself from the comment but also defended the preacher's intentions.

"Comparing the attacks on the Pope for the paedophile scandal with anti-Semitism is not the line that is followed by the Holy See," spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said.

He said Fr Cantalamessa "only wanted to publicise the solidarity with the Pope expressed by a Jew reflecting in particular the experience of the pain suffered by his own people."

But a top official of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said he found it highly unlikely the Pope's preacher would make such a statement without Vatican approval.

"It was a step taken at a high level to relativise anti-Semitism and the Holocaust," said Stephan Kramer, adding that such remarks make religious dialogue between Jews and Catholics impossible.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), the largest and most active of such groups in the US, said the remarks insulted "both abuse victims and Jewish people".

The child abuse scandal has engulfed much of Europe and the US, unleashing harsh critiques of the Catholic Church's handling of the scourge - even from other top religious leaders.

Fr Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans, said the Irish Catholic Church had lost "all credibility", with massive abuse compounded by evidence of cover-ups by high-ranking prelates, the Times of London reported yesterday, quoting a BBC radio interview to air this week.

Fr Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, called the scandal a "colossal trauma" in comments that risk creating tensions with the Vatican ahead of the Pope's visit to Britain in September.

Fr Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, said he was "stunned" by Fr Williams' comments, especially during Easter weekend.

"I have been more than forthright in addressing the failures of the Catholic Church in Ireland. I still shudder when I think of the harm that was caused to abused children. I recognise that their Church failed them," Fr Martin said.

The Pope himself faces allegations that, as Archbishop of Munich and later as the Vatican's chief morals enforcer, he helped to protect predator priests.