Vatican Claims Allegations Against Pope Are Backlash For Church's Opposition To Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

The Vatican on Tuesday said allegations that Pope Benedict XVI helped cover up the actions of priests accused of sex abuse are part of an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage, theAP/Yahoo! News reports. The pope has been criticized for not doing enough to halt abuse of minors in Germany and other European countries when he was the archbishop of Munich and when he later became a Vatican cardinal, theAP/Yahoo! News reports.

Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, said during a Vatican Radio broadcast that the pope "defends life and family ... in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different" agenda. Although Herranz did not identify specific lobbies, "defense of life" is "Vatican shorthand for antiabortion efforts," according to the AP/Yahoo! News.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's dean of the College of Cardinals, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the pope's advocacy for conservative family values provoked the alleged attacks. Sodano said, "By now, it's a cultural contrast. The pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted, and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church." He added, "Behind the unjust attacks on the pope are visions of the family and of life that run contrary to the Gospel" (D'Emilio, AP/Yahoo! News, 4/6).