ROME -- The nightmare day for the Vatican press office came last Thursday, when a report alleged that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, declined to defrock a priest who had been one of the American church's most aggressive and perverted pedophiles - he went after deaf boys.

Published in The New York Times, the report left Father Ciro Benedettini, the Vatican's amiable deputy press secretary, and chief spokesman Father Frederico Lombardi frazzled. "It's been a difficult and frustrating week," Father Benedettini said from his cluttered office within metres of St. Peter's Square and the papal apartments that overlook it.

The report, coming only days after the Pope's apology to the victims of abuse in Ireland, triggered a genuine credibility crisis within the Catholic Church and left the Vatican press office struggling to salvage the Pope's reputation. Father Benedettini, 64, can't remember having been so busy. To prove the point, he clicked onto the electronic service used by the Vatican to monitor Vatican- and Pope-related stories. There were more than 2,200 new stories yesterday morning alone. Most, probably, were about the scandals.

What has surprised the two priests is not so much the sheer volume of the stories, but the allegations that Pope Benedict XVI was as much a part of the problem as the solution. His critics insist he did too little too late to punish predator priests and in some cases did nothing at all, even though he must have been aware of the crimes.

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