Vatican says pope target of ‘hate’ campaign

[IndianaGreen]

Source: MSNBC

Vatican says pope target of ‘hate’ campaign

Blames allegations of abuse cover-up on groups with anti-Catholic agenda

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

updated 2 hours, 10 minutes ago

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Vatican Radio broadcast comments by two senior cardinals explaining "the motive for these attacks" on the pope and the Vatican newspaper chipped in with spirited comments from another top cardinal.

"The pope defends life and the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different" agenda, Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, said on the radio.

Herranz didn't identify the lobbies but "defense of life" is Vatican shorthand for anti-abortion efforts.

Also arguing that Benedict's promotion of conservative family models had provoked the so-called attacks was the Vatican's dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano.

"By now, it's a cultural contrast," Sodano told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. "The pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted, and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church."


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36199052/ns/world_news-europe/

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What a scumbag! The only "moral truth" is that this Pope protected pedophiles.