海角大神

Pressure is building on the Vatican to reveal more information about a priest accused of sexually molesting boys 鈥� specifically the extent to which Pope Benedict XVI, then an archbishop in Munich, may have known about the sex abuse.

鈥淭he future Pope Benedict XVI was kept more closely apprised of a sexual abuse case in Germany than previous church statements have suggested, raising fresh questions about his handling of a scandal unfolding under his direct supervision before he rose to the top of the church鈥檚 hierarchy,鈥� the New York Times reported Friday.

鈥淐ardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope and archbishop in Munich at the time, was copied on a memo that informed him that a priest, whom he had approved sending to therapy in 1980 to overcome pedophilia, would be returned to pastoral work within days of beginning psychiatric treatment,鈥� . 鈥淭he priest was later convicted of molesting boys in another parish.鈥�

Church officials were quick to rebut the report.

鈥淭he then archbishop had no knowledge of the decision to reassign [the priest] to pastoral activities in a parish,鈥� the Vatican said in a statement on Friday, adding that it 鈥渞ejects any other version of events as mere speculation.鈥�

鈥淲e stand by our account that Cardinal Ratzinger didn鈥檛 know about this decision,鈥� diocese spokesman Bernhard Kellner . 鈥淎n archbishop doesn鈥檛 read all the administrative acts. He just can鈥檛. That鈥檚 why he has a vicar general.鈥�

According to the Associated Press, "in his time as an archbishop in Germany, a cardinal at the Vatican and then after becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger has overseen involving allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and church workers."

Meanwhile, the Legion of Christ, a Catholic religious order whose founder was revealed to have molested young seminarians, formally apologized Friday.

According to a Saturday:

鈥淎fter years of defending its founder, Marcial Maciel, the Legion fully repudiated Mr. Maciel, who died in 2008 at age 87, two years after Pope Benedict XVI forced him to retire to a 鈥減rivate life of penance and prayer.鈥�

鈥淲e accept that, given the gravity of his faults, we cannot take his person as a model of 海角大神 or priestly life,鈥� the Legion statement said.

As reported by Reuters, Catholic churches in Europe rallied behind Pope Benedict on Friday, rejecting claims he had covered up child sex abuse by priests and praising him as a leader determined to combat scandals challenging the Church. 鈥�France鈥檚 bishops conference, the archbishop of London and the Munich archdiocese that Benedict once headed all rejected allegations from the media a day after the Vatican angrily accused its critics of an 鈥榠gnoble attempt鈥� to smear him.鈥�

But the , in a long and very tough editorial, says 鈥淣othing less than a full, personal and public accounting will begin to address the crisis that is engulfing the worldwide church.鈥�

鈥淲e now face the largest institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history,鈥� editors for the respected independent news source on Catholic issues wrote. 鈥淗ow this crisis is handled by Benedict, what he says and does, how he responds and what remedies he seeks, will likely determine the future health of our church for decades, if not centuries, to come.鈥�