Pope celebrates Easter vigil amid abuse scandal

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Easter Vigil as the Vatican newspaper attacked what it called a “vile defamation operation” against him over the clerical abuse scandal.

Benedict presided over last night’s the evening service in St Peter’s Basilica, commemorating the night before Easter, when Christians believe Christ rose from the dead.

The Pope did not directly refer to the scandal in his homily, focusing on life, death and immortality, pondering what would happen if modern medicine could remove death altogether.

“Would that be a good thing?” he asked. “Humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation,” he said.

Rather than prolonging death, he said, baptism offered the “medicine of immortality”.

During the service, Benedict baptised six people – a traditional feature of Easter eve papal Masses.

Meanwhile, in an article yesterday, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano denounced what it called the “vile defamation campaign” against the Pope and cited messages of solidarity that had arrived from bishops from around the world.

The Vatican has accused the media of fanning the scandal by reporting on cases of priests who raped children and bishops who either did not report it to police or were stopped from pursuing church trials by the Vatican.

Benedict, who celebrates Easter and delivers his “Urbi et Orbi” speech today, has not made any explicit reference to the scandal since he released a letter on March 20 to the Irish faithful about the abuse crisis here.

Meanwhile in Britain, the Archbishop of Westminster used his Easter sermon today to say the Catholic Church was acknowledging its guilt over the child abuse scandal.

Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said “serious sins” had been committed within the Catholic community.

During his homily at Westminster Cathedral, Archbishop Nichols said: “Talk of sin is not always popular – unless we are talking about other people’s sins.

“In recent weeks the serious sins committed within the Catholic community have been much talked about.

“For our part, we have been reflecting on them deeply, acknowledging our guilt and our need for forgiveness.

“This is the journey of Holy Week.

“Indeed, to appreciate the message of this great Christian feast we have to begin with our own sin and shame.”