Paedophilia scandals cause German Roman Catholicism crisis

This video says about itself:

A priest speaks out against his Pope

Fr Thomas Doyle, an American Canon Law expert and a Dominican priest, gives his views on Pope Benedict the Sixteenth’s letter of apology to the Irish people for the clerical abuse of children in Ireland. Fr Doyle spoke to Karen Coleman on her show, the Wide Angle on Newstalk on Sunday 21st March 2010.

From DPA news agency in Germany:

Scandals have scared off new recruits, Germany’s top Catholic says

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:05:24 GMT

Freiburg, Germany – A string of sex abuse scandals in the German Catholic church has led to a dramatic fall in the number of young men wanting to become priests, Germany’s top Catholic bishop said Sunday.

Speaking to the German Press Agency dpa, Archbishop of Freiburg Robert Zollitsch, who is the Chairman of the German Episcopal Conference and thus spokesman for the church, said that the church was now suffering from a serious lack of manpower.

“We are living through a great trauma, indeed the deepest crisis of the Catholic church in Germany since 1945,” Zollitsch said.

Sexual abuse scandals have rocked the church in Germany since January, when dozens of cases emerged involving sexual molestation of minors by priests and other clergy over a period of 50 years at church-run schools.

Zollitsch said that new applications to join the priesthood across had fallen to 150 this year, a record low.

The archbishop himself had been under investigation earlier this year over claims that he had failed to sack a priest in his diocese accused of abuse.

“The whole profession has been damaged by these scandals,” he said.

Pope snubbed by Scottish Catholics: here.