The Vatican is defending Pope Benedict against what it says is an effort to drag him into the widening scandals involving pedophile priests in his native Germany.
Vatican officials say he has always confronted abuse cases with courage.
Friday, the archdiocese in Munich acknowledged that while Benedict was archbishop there, it had transferred a suspected pedophile priest to community work.
There have also been accusations of abuse connected to a boys choir directed by the pope's elder brother for some 30 years.
And there's criticism over a church directive that Benedict wrote while a Vatican cardinal in 2001, telling bishops to keep abuse cases confidential.
But the Vatican's prosecutor for sex abuse cases says it's "false and defamatory" to accuse Benedict of hiding abuse cases.
