More than 10,000 Britons have signed a petition against Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to the UK, as anti-Vatican sentiments grow over child abuse scandals.The petition launched on Downing Street's web site challenges the Pope's immunity from prosecution over sex crimes by pedophile priests during his four-day visit to England and Scotland in September.
Senior British lawyers are now examining whether the Vatican's implicit statehood status should shield the pope as a head-of-state from prosecution.
Some lawyers argue, however, that the Vatican isn't a true state and not a member of the United Nations.
Moreover, the Pope, is the only top religious leader to have immunity in the world.
The lawyers are now looking into prosecuting the top churchman under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows judges to issue warrants for nearly any visitor accused of grievous crimes, no matter where they live.
The latest development comes on the heels of a statement by the dean of the College of Cardinals, in which he called the scandal involving Catholic clergymen "petty gossip" during Mass on Easter Sunday.
"Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment," Cardinal Angelo Sodano said in an unusual message of support.
The Pope, however, refrained from directly mentioning the scandal in his traditional Easter address.
While referring to problems people face across the world, ranging from the Middle East to the Caribbean, the pontiff said humanity was suffering from a "profound crisis" and needed "spiritual and moral conversion."
Since the breakout of the scandals, Pope Benedict has mostly preferred to remain silent on the issue, except for a letter of apology, which he sent to the Irish Church late last month.
This is while the series of damaging allegations of child molestation and physical cruelty in Catholic institutions across the United States and Europe, mostly during the 1950's to 80's, are considered to be one of the most serious crises to ever hit the Vatican.
The pontiff has personally come under fire for ignoring the abuse cases, during his tenure as archbishop of Munich.
Pope Benedict is also accused of taking no action against a pedophile priest accused of abusing some 200 deaf boys in the US, when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The congregation is responsible for "promoting and safeguarding the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence."
Meanwhile recent revelations have also dragged the late pope John Paul II, who headed the Vatican for 27 years, into the scandals.
According to reports, the late Polish pontiff, who is close to being beatified and named a saint of the Catholic Church, had allegedly blocked an investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests.
The Vatican is accused of having built a "wall of silence" around such issues after it ordered Catholic priests in 2001 to report "priestly misbehaviors," even the most serious abuse cases, to Rome alone.
Our correspondent in England says many analysts believe that the Vatican now faces a predicament which is far more serious then the child sex abuse scandal - that is a crisis of credibility.
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