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".