Security around the Pope is to be stepped up for his visit to Malta amid fears of protests over the child abuse scandals, Britain's Daily Telegraph has reported.
Nick Pisa, reporting from Rome, said the decision came after vandals defaced posters promoting the Pontiff's trip over the weekend by adding an Adolf Hitler style moustache to his photograph and the word "paedophile".
As a teenager growing up in Germany Pope Benedict, then Josef Ratzinger, was conscripted into the Hitler Youth in the closing stages of the Second World War, an episode he has avoided talking about at great length.
"There have been a series of high level calls between security and Vatican officials in both Rome and the Maltese capital of Valleta in recent days as the scandal over sex abuse by clergy has grown," the newspaper says.
A Vatican source said: "There is a real fear that protests will be an issue during the visit by the Pope to Malta and as a result precautions are being taken. The itinerary is not being changed but there is concern and as a result an increase in vigilance.''
It comes after it was disclosed that the Pope, who was then Cardinal Ratzinger, resisted appeals to unfrock an American priest with a record of sexually molesting children. In a letter, written in 1985 and bearing his name, he said that any action against Fr Stephen Kiesle should take into account the "good of the universal Church" and the "detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke within the community of Christ's faithful, particularly concerning the young age." Fr Kiesle was 38 at the time.
Malta, like Ireland, Germany and America has been hit by a series of sex scandals involving Roman Catholic clergy and on the island which was a former British colony there have been abuse claims against 45 priests.
The newspaper says child abuse victims plan to protest at the airport when the Pope lands on Saturday afternoon and at various other events during the Pope's 36-hour trip, which is to celebrate St Paul being shipwrecked there 1950 years ago.
Many of the abuse cases in Malta are said to have taken place at the St Joseph Orphanage at Santa Venera and one victim Lawrence Grech, has written to the Pope dealing his horrific ordeal at the hands of priests.
He has asked for a meeting with the Pope and an apology but so far he has heard nothing, despite the Pope's spokesman last week saying that the Pope would be willing to meet abuse victims.
A Facebook site called "No to Pope Benedict XVI in Malta" has been set up and has attracted more than 1,000 members.