A council in the north of Italy rejected a proposal from a communist councillor who sought to condemn Pope Benedict XVI for what he considered inaction over the paedophile scandal engulfing the Catholic Church.The 17-member council of Vaiano Cremasco, a small town of 4, 000 people 40 km from Milan, voted against the measure proposed by council member and former mayor Giovanni Alchieri.
Alchiery cast the sole vote in favour of the proposal and called on his colleagues to express their “lack of solidarity” over the pope’s failure to take action on sex abuse allagations against priests.
The Vatican is seeking to contain the damage caused by the alleged sexual abuse of thousands of children by paedophile clerics and lay brothers over the past 60 years in Europe and North America.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi expressed his solidarity with the pope after Benedict issued an historic pastoral letter expressing a heartfelt apology over sexual abuse in the Irish Catholic Church.
Berlusconi described it as an incredibly effective response to a difficult situation.
SIC: THIND