‘Abuse critique like anti-Semitism’
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/04/2010 22:00

Pope’s preacher’s comment in sermon enrages Jewish groups, victims of clerical sex abuse.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to “collective violence” suffered by the Jews.

Reaction from Jewish groups and victims of clerical sex abuse ranged from skepticism to fury.

The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter’s Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote to him to say the accusations remind him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” To read the whole story