Italy – Religion – Pope Benedict XVI – Evening Vigil Service

Corbis

10 Jun 2010, Rome, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI celebrates an evening vigil service in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to mark the end of the Church’s year of the priest, on June 10, 2010. A year that has been marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse, cover-up and Vatican inaction to root out pedophile priests.Thousands of priest from around the world gathered in St. Peter’s square in a major show of support for Pope Benedict XVI amid the clerical abuse scandal. During the ceremony Pope Benedict XVI strongly defended celibacy for priests but he didn’t directly mention the clergy abuse scandal but he referred to what he called ‘secondary scandals’ that showed ‘our own insufficiencies and sins. — Image by © Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis