Pope Leads Followers into Holy Week

28 March 2010

Pope Benedict XVI holds a woven palm frond while celebrating an open-air Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter's square at the Vatican, 28 Mar 2010

Pope Benedict XVI led tens of thousands of worshippers in a special mass in St. Peter's Square on Palm Sunday - the start of Holy Week commemorating the last days in the life of Jesus Christ. But, this year the Catholic Church faces a crisis amid growing allegations of sexual abuse by priests and a cover up by the Church.

By mid-day the vast square in front of St. Peter's Basilica was packed with people. Some had come to watch the spectacle of the outdoor Palm Sunday mass; but for most this was a unique opportunity to celebrate the beginning of holy week alongside the Church hierarchy, including the Pope.

But this year the Roman Catholic Church is facing a growing crisis amid a flood of accusations of sexual abuse of children by priests over the decades and allegations of a cover up by senior clergy.

And the scandal has reached all the way to the top - to the time when the Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich and when he then headed the Vatican's main doctrine office. Questions have been raised about his handling of sex abuse cases and whether he had a role in keeping them quiet. The Vatican says he had acted properly.

Pope Benedict has spoken out publicly about the scandal in Ireland in a letter to the faithful in which he criticized Irish bishops for their handling of such cases.