Rome:
The Vatican has handled damaging child abuse cases in an "exemplary" manner, the editor of the Vatican newspaper said today, fending off widespread criticism over mushrooming paedophilia scandals.
The Roman Catholic Church as a whole "is the only institution to address this problem that concerns all of society in an exemplary manner," said L'Osservatore Romano editor-in-chief Giovanni Maria Vian. Thanks to strict anti-paedophilia measures, "the phenomenon is practically gone in the United States with less than 10 cases in 2009," Vian told Rome's foreign press.
Large-scale paedophilia scandals have rocked the Catholic churches of Ireland, Austria, the United States and the pope's native Germany in recent months. The Vatican has adopted a strategy of blaming the media for playing up the paedophile revelations, accusing them of trying to smear Pope Benedict XVI.
Top prelates closed ranks around the pope ahead of Easter mass on April 4, with the dean of the Vatican's College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, saying that "the people of God are with you" and would ignore "idle chatter". Experts said however that the Vatican's approach was a sign of weakness, and that the Church should take responsibility for the scandals.
But Vian praised the way the pope, who will turn 83 on Friday, has handled the scandals, describing him as a "great communicator," even if the pontiff's predecessor John Paul II excelled in handling the media.