Germany abuse scandal edges closer to Pope Benedict; Vatican insists no connection

Vatican officials, taking the offensive Saturday, proclaimed Pope Benedict's innocence against charges the pontiff helped protect a pedophile priest in his native Germany.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi insisted in an interview on Vatican Radio that Pope Benedict was not connected in any way to the burgeoning sex abuse scandal in his homeland.

"It's rather clear that in the last days, there have been those who have tried, with a certain aggressive persistence ... to look for elements to personally involve the Holy Father in the matter of abuses," the Vatican spokesman said.

"For any objective observer, it's clear that these efforts have failed," Lombardi said.

On Friday, the pope's former diocese in Bavaria acknowledged he was involved in a 1980 decision to reassign a priest suspected of child abuse.

The then-archbishop agreed to send the priest for therapy at a rectory in the diocese of Munich and Freising.

But the diocese vicar general instead assigned him to a Munich parish without any restrictions.

The diocese said the vicar general, Gerhard Gruber, made the decision on his own. Pope Benedict served as head of the diocese from 1977-82.

The flap over the priest's reassignment came amidst a flurry of abuse accusations linked to the Catholic Church in Germany.

One involved the prestigious Regensburg choir, which was directed by the pope's elder brother for three decades. More

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