ROME (AP) -- The clerical sex abuse crisis is energizing Roman Catholic dissidents who want to open up the priesthood to women and ditch celibacy requirements. They marched on Rome Tuesday even as Pope Benedict XVI called on priests to converge on the Vatican to cap a yearlong celebration of the priesthood. And in a sign of the deepening...
Representatives of the Women's Ordination Conference stage a protest in front of St. Peter's Basilica, in Rome, with holding poster from left, Therese Koturbash from Dauphin, Matitoba, Canada, Mary Ann Schoettly from Newton, N.J, US, and Erin Saiz Hanna, Washington, D.C. US, as they protest on Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Groups that have long demanded that women be ordained Roman Catholic priests took advantage of the Vatican's crisis over clerical sex abuse to press their cause demanding the Vatican open discussions on letting women join the priesthood.
ROME (AP) -- The clerical sex abuse crisis is energizing Roman Catholic dissidents who want to open up the priesthood to women and ditch celibacy requirements.
They marched on Rome Tuesday even as Pope Benedict XVI called on priests to converge on the Vatican to cap a yearlong celebration of the priesthood. And in a sign of the deepening crisis, the faithful in traditionally Catholic Austria are at the forefront of demands for change.
In Rome, church reformers demanded changes in the male-dominated church structure they say is responsible for covering up priestly sex abuse for decades, pressing their case on the eve of a three-day rally of the world's priests summoned by Benedict.
What was meant to be a year of celebration has turned into one marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse and Vatican inaction to root out pedophile priests.
Representatives from a half-dozen pro-women's ordination groups denounced Benedict's rally, saying the Vatican shouldn't be honoring priests amid a clerical sex abuse scandal.
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