Vatican City, Apr 15, 2010 / 15:39 pm
This "isn't the first time the Church has suffered," Cardinal Camillo Ruini said as he reflected on the current state of the Church in an interview with the Italian paper La Republica on Thursday.
Responding to a question about the "dramatic moments" the Catholic Church is living through as Pope Benedict XVI approaches the fifth year of his pontificate, Cardinal Ruini said, "It's is undoubtedly a period of suffering and of trial for the Church, that at the moment revolves around the question of pedophilia."
"But it isn't the first time the Church has suffered," he added. In the past, there have been other trials, other sufferings, always overcome by Providence."
In the current situation, the cardinal said, "there are the objectively very serious sins of some priests and there is a strong desire to put the entire Church and especially the Pope on the bench of the accused: a profoundly unjust and unfounded thing, because Benedict XVI is exactly the opposite of that which they wish to make him appear (to be)."