Protests Mix With Prayer at 'Year of the Priest' Gathering

(June 10) -- Thousands of priests from around the world are gathered in Rome to celebrate the "Year of the Priest," but many of the clergymen are reflecting on a year marred by the clerical abuse scandal.

Addressing an estimated 9,000 priests this evening in a vigil at St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI praised celibacy as "a great sign of faith." Although he referred to "secondary scandals" that showed "our own insufficiencies and sins," he did not directly address the abuse issue, The Associated Press reported.

His No. 2 at the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told priests Wednesday that the revelations of sexual abuse had harmed the church and should prompt a "new season of spiritual renewal and rebirth."

Priests anticipating the pope's address in St. Peter's Square said they were finding solace in prayer -- and in fellow church leaders from around the world.

"The church isn't perfect. Priests are men. Among priests there are those who will become saints, there are good priests and there are criminals as well. So it happens," the Rev. Fernando Cerero, a priest from Mexico, told the AP. "We felt much shame and sadness, but this is an opportunity [for priests] to reflect on our ministry. ... It is an opportunity for holiness."

Others said they hoped the Year of the Priest gathering will enable laypeople to see the priesthood in a better light.

"It allows people who perhaps are reflecting on the negative things that some priests have done, it allows them to be reading and listening to some of the positive things that the priesthood has done over 2,000 years," the Rev. James Deiters of Belleville, Ill., told CNN.

Some of the thousands of people who have come forward to allege they suffered sexual abuse by their priests are also in Rome, demanding the pope issue a formal apology to victims.

"We have carried around guilt and shame our entire lives, and we have carried the responsibility of perpetrator priests, bishops who cover up for them, cardinals who cover up for them and of popes who cover up for them," Joelle Casteix of the U.S.-based Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests told CNN. "That is no longer a burden we are willing to bear."