i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. top vatican officials strongly defended pope benedict the sixteenth and the roman catholic church this week amid growing controversy over allegations of priestly sex abuse in europe and of inadequate oversight by some church leaders. two senior cardinals claimed that many of the accusations have been motivated by what they called an "anti-catholic hate" campaign. the crisis has also created new tensions between two religious communities. archbishop of canterbury rowan williams issued an apology after he claimed in a radio interview that, because of the scandal the that, because of the scandal, the catholic church in ireland was "losing all credibility." many irish and british catholics were deeply angered by the remarks. williams' office said, "the archbishop had no intention of criticizing or offending the roman catholic church as a whole." meanwhile, the vatican named archbishop jose gomez to head the los angeles archdiocese when cardinal roger mahony retires next february. archbish

i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. pope benedict xvi directly addressed the church sex abuse scandal this week. at the vatican, the pope told pilgrims in st. peter's square the church planned to take action in the face of allegations of abusive priests and negligent bishops. he did not elaborate, but soon afterward the vatican accepted the resignations of bishops in ireland and belgium because of the scandal. last weekend, during a visit to malta, benedict met privately with victims of clerical sex abuse and, with them, he prayed and wept. the continuing crisis in the church has left millions of american catholics sad, angry, and wondering what can be done to resolve it. we want to talk about that with margaret steinfels, former editor in chief of "commonweal" magazine, now co-director of the center on religion and culture at fordham university. she joins us from new york how do you describe the range of reactions among the u.s. catholic laity? >> i think that many people are surprised th

i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. the clergy sex abuse scandal continues to roil the catholic church. new claims of abuse emerged across europe and elsewhere, as did allegations that known abusers were transferred between parishes. the vatican responded by urging bishops to report all accusations to civil authorities when the law requires it, but also again lashed out against what it called bias in the news coverage. at the same time, a top vatican official drew criticism for linking pedophilia to homosexuality. pope benedict xvi alluded to the crisis in a homily thursday. he said now that we are "under attack from the world, we realize that it's necessary to repent." the scandal will be the backdrop to benedict's weekend trip to malta, a predominantly catholic country, and next week, during observances of the fifth anversary of benedict's election and installation as pope. tariq ramadan, considered one of the most prominent scholars in the muslim world, made his first visit to the united states since the obama admini