Pope Benedict XVI yesterday urged Catholics to "do penance" and a top cardinal called for a mass rally by clergy to support the Pontiff under fire over widespread paedophile priest scandals.

"Now under the attacks of the world which talk to us about our sins, let us see that we can do penance," the Pope said at a Mass at the Vatican.

"I have to say that we Christians, even lately, have often avoided the word 'penance' that seemed to us too hard," the Pope said, speaking for the first time since he was directly named in allegations of helping to protect priests who have abused children.

Meanwhile the Vatican prelate who oversees the world's 400,000 Roman Catholic priests urged them to flock to Saint Peter's Square to rally around the Pope and reject "unjust attacks" against him as the Church's Year of Priests winds up in June.

"The large presence of priests in the square with him will be a determined rejection of the unjust attacks of which he is a victim," Cardinal Claudio Hummes said in a letter posted on the Vatican website.

Cardinal Hummes, the prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy, asked priests show "our solidarity, our support, our confidence, and our unconditional communion in the face of the frequent attacks directed towards" the Pope at the Vatican from June 9 to 11.

"The accusations directed towards him are obviously unjust, and it has been shown that no one has done as much as Pope Benedict XVI to condemn and to combat properly such crimes," the Brazilian cardinal said.

"It is absolutely unacceptable to use the crimes of the few in order to sully the entire ecclesial body of priests," said Cardinal Hummes, urging priests not to "hesitate to respond to the heartfelt and cordial invitation of the Holy Father."

Widespread paedophilia scandals have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, Austria, the US and the Pope's native Germany in recent months. Criticism of the Vatican reached fever pitch this week after the Pope's right-hand man linked paedophilia to homosexuality on Monday.

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