VATICAN - March 8, 2010 - CathNews - An adviser to Pope Benedict, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has told an Italian newspaper that the Church needs to clean up its act over child abuse, by compensating victims and punishing the perpetrators.
The report comes over a weekend of several news stories regarding various abuse scandals linked to the Church.
"That's enough. We have to seriously clean up the church," Cardinal Kasper was quoted as saying in Italian daily La Repubblica, according to an AFP report.
"Sexual abuses of minors by representatives of the clergy are criminal, shameful acts, they are unacceptable mortal sins," he said.
"I think such a shocking problem... needs a wider analysis for maybe the whole church and not just one country," the cardinal said.
In a separate report last week, Italian investigations into corruption
Church Needs to Clean Up,
Says Papal Adviser
Cardinal Walter Kasper
involving an official, Angelo Balducci - who also served as a ceremonial papal usher - revealed his links to an alleged homosexual prostitution ring, according to reports by Reuters and the BBC.
Balducci, who served among the "Gentlemen of His Holiness", and Ghinedu Ehiem, a member of the elite Giulia Choir in St Peter's Basilica, were implicated in conversations about procuring men for sex, reports say.
Both men have been removed from their Vatican roles, BBC reports.
Another recent scandal involves acknowledgement from a German bishop on Friday about sexual abuse of members of a boy choir in the southern German city of Regensburg.
The Pope's brother, 86-year-old Georg Ratzinger, led the Domspatzen choir between 1964 and 1993. He has not been accused of abuse.