Valletta: Pope Benedict XVI said
Saturday the Roman Catholic Church had been wounded by sin as he
flew to Malta on his first foreign trip since a wave of priest
sex abuse scandals broke in Europe and the United States.
"Malta loves Christ who loves his Church which is his
body, even if this body is wounded by our sins," he told
accompanying journalists in a direct allusion to the scandals.
The pope`s plane landed shortly after 1500 GMT after the
brief flight from Rome to the deeply Catholic Mediterranean
island country, where he is scheduled to stay just over 24
hours.
Benedict also referred to illegal immigration which has
hit this tiny nation hard with people crossing from Africa to
Europe in fragile boats, calling it "a great challenge for our
times, to which we must respond".
The visit comes amid near-daily allegations of
child-molesting priests in Europe or the United States, some
homing in on the pope`s role either as head of the Vatican`s
morals watchdog or earlier as archbishop of Munich.
Under the pressure of increasingly hostile opinion over
claims that the Vatican hierarchy including the pope himself
helped protect predator priests, Benedict may hold an
impromptu meeting with Maltese abuse victims, but far from
the media spotlight.
Malta, where one in three children under 16 attend
Catholic schools, has itself been hit by allegations of abuse
at the orphanage they attended.
The smallest member of the European Union with a
population of some 443,000, has also been scandalised by
revelations that a suspected paedophile priest has retired
here from Canada.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said the pope
would not bow to "media pressure" to meet with abuse victims
and noted that his programme was "already very tight".
PTI
