VATICAN CITY, (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI, under increasing fire for the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of pedophile priests, urged Christians yesterday not to be intimidated by idle “chatter”.

Celebrating Palm Sunday mass in St Peter’s Square, the pope, without referring directly to the scandals that have swept Europe in recent months, said Jesus Christ “leads us to the courage to not be intimidated by the chatter of prevailing opinions”.

The Vatican newspaper recently criticised the media over its coverage of the sex abuse scandals, but Vatican watcher Marco Politi warned against reading too much into the pope’s words.

He said the pontiff had often referred to “chatter” in his frequent criticisms of “useless, materialistic things”.

The pope “has never spoken of ‘chatter’ in reference to sexual abuse”, Politi, who writes for the left-wing daily Il Fatto, told AFP.

The 82-year-old pope has come under intense pressure in recent days with allegations in the press that, as archbishop of Munich and later as the chief Vatican enforcer of Catholic doctrine and morals, he failed to act against predator priests.

On Thursday, the head of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics came under fresh scrutiny in a New York Times report on the case of an American priest accused of abusing up to 200 deaf boys who was never disciplined.

The influential US daily followed up Friday with allegations that Benedict was aware of the transfer of a known German abuser when he headed the Munich archdiocese.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Saturday that Benedict would not be weakened by the scandals, which have prompted some commentators to suggest that the pope could be forced to resign.

In the 2,000-year history of the papacy, only two popes have resigned from the lifetime post, in 1294 and 1415.

“The recent media attacks have without doubt caused damage,” Lombardi said.

“But the authority of the pope and the commitment of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith against sex abuse of minors will come out of this not weakened but strengthened,” he said.

A poll in Germany’s Stern magazine found falling confidence in the Catholic Church, standing at 17 per cent from 29 per cent in January, with faith in the pope down to 24 per cent from 38 per cent in the same period.

The conservative Benedict has continually spoken out and apologised for the “heinous crime” of child sex abuse by priests, meeting victims in the United States and in Australia.

Meanwhile national churches have lined up in defence of the pope.

Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, blasted what it called a “stoning” of Benedict, a “frenetic desire to tarnish” him and the Church as a whole.

The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano earlier charged that the New York Times had made an “ignoble attempt” to smear the pope and his closest aides “at all costs”.

Yesterday, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales said there was “no strong reason” for the pope to resign over the abuse scandals as protesters gathered in London to urge the pontiff to quit.

“The pope won’t resign. Frankly there’s no strong reason for him to do so,” Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols told the BBC. “In fact it’s the other way around — he is the one above all else who has tackled these things.”

As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger initiated a decree issued by Pope John Paul II in 2001 ordering bishops to report abuse cases to the Vatican and remove abusers from contact with youth.

The Vatican says it received 3,000 reports between 2001 and 2010 of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy committed over the past 50 years.