Sex scandal

VATICAN CITY - POPE Benedict XVI sees the priestly sex scandal as a 'test for him and the church,' his spokesman said on Wednesday, as bishops around Europe used Holy Week's solemn call for penitence to announce new pledges of transparency in dealing with the abuse of children.

Swiss bishops urged victims to consider filing criminal complaints. German bishops opened a hot line for victims. Danish bishops launched an inquiry into decades-old claims. And Austria's senior cleric, Cardinal Christophe Schoenborn, admitted church guilt as he presided over a service for victims billed as a sign of repentance.

'Thank you for breaking your silence,' Cardinal Schoenborn told the victims. 'A lot has been broken open. There is less looking away.' 'But there is still a lot to do.' A week after Pope Benedict XVI excoriated Irish bishops for gross errors of judgment in handling cases of priests who rape children, European bishops one after another admitted to mistakes, reached out to victims and promised to act when they learn about abuse.

Their mea culpas and pledges to be more open and cooperative with police echoed American bishops' initial responses when the US priest-abuse scandal emerged in 2002. They come amid mounting public outrage over a new wave of abuse claims across Europe and what victims say has been a pattern of cover-up by bishops and the Vatican itself.

And they were all announced during the most solemn week of the church's liturgical calendar. As the Swiss bishops noted on Wednesday, Holy Week is a period of penance, when the faithful are supposed to admit their guilt, examine wrongdoing, find ways to improve and ask God and people for forgiveness.

Pope Benedict himself was experiencing a Holy Week of 'humility and penitence,' Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told The Associated Press. Asked how Pope Benedict was responding to the scandal swirling around the Vatican, Rev. Lombardi replied: 'The pope is a person of faith. He sees this as a test for him and the church.' -- AP