Accusations against Pope likened to 'collective violence against Jews'

Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher has likened accusations against the Pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.

The Reverend Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the Pope listening to him 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".

Quoting from the letter from the friend, who was not identified, the preacher said he was following "'with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the Pope and all the faithful of the whole world'".

"'The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,'" Cantalamessa said his friend wrote.