Comparing criticism of the pope in the child sex scandals engulfing the Catholic Church to anti-Semitism is insulting and impertinent, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said Saturday."It is impertinent and an insult to the victims of sexual abuse as well as victims of the Holocaust," Stephan Kramer told AFP.
The parallel was made in a Good Friday service by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the pope's personal preacher, who said he received a letter from a Jewish friend criticising the attacks against the pope and Catholic Church over the response to predator priests.
"The stereotyping, the transfer of personal responsibility and blame to a collective blame reminds me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," the friend wrote, according to Cantalamessa.
The remarks have triggered a chorus of criticism from Jewish groups and those representing victims of abuse by Catholic priests.
The Vatican "is falling back upon the regular methods it has used over the decades to suppress and hide any affairs which compromise" the Catholic Church, said Kramer.
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