Pope Knew that Priest Sexually Abused Boys, But Spared Him

The growing sex abuse storm buffeting the Catholic church today moved closer to the figure of the pope himself, after allegations emerged that as a cardinal he had chosen not to discipline a dying American priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf boys, reports Guardian.co.uk.

In a report that for the first time pointed the finger directly at the pope's own conduct, The New York Times said that while he was cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger was twice informed about a notorious case involving Father Lawrence Murphy, who ran a school for deaf children in Wisconsin between 1950 and 1974.

Though instructions were giving for a canonical trial to be held into Murphy's misdeeds, proceedings were dropped after the priest wrote to Ratzinger begging not to be indicted.

The Vatican angrily denounced the latest accusation in what it sees as a campaign to smear the pope, and said the church was being unfairly portrayed as the only institution with such a sinister history.

In a statement published on its front page, the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, lambasted the international media for an "obvious and ignoble attempt to strike, at all costs, Benedict and his closest collaborators."

It said: "The prevalent tendency in the media is to gloss over the facts and force interpretations with the aim of spreading an image of the Catholic church almost as if it were the only [institution] responsible for sexual abuses."

Benedict is already on the defensive because of his stint as archbishop of Munich, during which a pedophile priest was accepted into his archdiocese and assigned to duties that enabled him to prey on children again.