Priests gather in Rome to back Pope
Updated on 10 June 2010
An estimated 15,000 priests massed in St Peter's Square in the Vatican in one of the largest such gatherings in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI and the priesthood itself amid the clerical abuse scandal.
Benedict was to answer some selected questions from the prelates in an eagerly anticipated vigil service. It's not know whether the Pope will refer to the crisis, but his assistant told the prelates that the scandal had pained and damaged the church and shown the need for a spiritual rebirth.
The vigil and Friday morning Mass marked the end of the church's year of the priest - a year that has been marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse, cover-up and Vatican inaction to stop it.
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