VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI sees the priestly sex scandal as a "test for him and the church," his spokesman said Wednesday, as bishops around Europe used Holy Week's solemn call for penitence to announce new pledges of transparency in dealing with the abuse of children.
Swiss bishops urged victims to consider filing criminal complaints. German bishops opened a hotline for victims. Danish bishops launched an inquiry into decades-old claims. And Austria's senior cleric, Cardinal Christophe Schoenborn, admitted church guilt as he presided over a service for victims billed as a sign of repentance.
"Thank you for breaking your silence," Schoenborn told the victims. "A lot has been broken open. There is less looking away. But there is still a lot to do."
A week after Pope Benedict XVI excoriated Irish bishops for gross errors of judgment in handling cases of priests who rape children, European bishops one after another admitted to mistakes, reached out to victims and promised to act when they learn about abuse.
Their mea culpas and pledges to be more open and cooperative with police echoed American bishops' initial responses when the U.S. priest-abuse scandal emerged in 2002. They come amid mounting public outrage over a new wave of abuse claims across Europe and what victims say has been a pattern of cover-up by bishops and the Vatican itself.
And they were all announced during the most solemn week of the church's liturgical calendar. As the Swiss bishops noted Wednesday, Holy Week is a period of penance, when the faithful are supposed to admit their guilt, examine wrongdoing, find ways to improve and ask God and people for forgiveness.
Benedict himself was experiencing a Holy Week of "humility and penitence," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told The Associated Press.
Asked how Benedict was responding to the scandal swirling around the Vatican, Lombardi replied: "The pope is a person of faith. He sees this as a test for him and the church."
Lombardi stressed, though, that the 82-year-old pontiff was holding up fine physically during the grueling Holy Week schedule.
Benedict is to celebrate an evening Holy Thursday service in which he will wash the feet of 12 priests in a symbol of humility. The service commemorates Jesus' washing the feet of his 12 apostles before the Last Supper.
After presiding over the Good Friday Way of the Cross commemoration at Rome's torch-lit Coliseum, Benedict will celebrate a late-night Easter Vigil on Saturday and then Easter on Sunday, when the faithful commemorate Jesus' resurrection — a time of rebirth and renewal.
While clerical abuse has for years roiled the church in Ireland, mainland Europe woke up to the issue in its backyard earlier this year with the first wave of reports from Benedict's native Germany that boys had been abused at a church-run school. Since then, hundreds of people have come forward with claims of abuse — most dating back decades — in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Swiss bishops were taking Holy Week's intentions to heart in admitting Wednesday they had underestimated the problem. They are now telling victims to consider filing criminal complaints.
Switzerland, home of the Swiss Guard papal protectors, is considering creating a central registry of pedophile priests to prevent them from coming into contact with children. Swiss bishops are divided over the proposal.
In Austria, Cardinal Schoenborn celebrated a Wednesday evening service for abuse victims in a sign of repentance. During the service, which featured accounts of abuse, readings and musical interludes, Schoenborn acknowledged church guilt and thanked victims for coming forward.
Schoenborn, who has taken a lead in denouncing the scandal and demanding reforms, was named Vienna archbishop in 1995, tasked to clean up the mess in the diocese after Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer was forced to resign as archbishop over allegations he molested youths at a monastery in the 1970s.