As the sexual abuse scandal sweeps through the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope is under huge pressure, who has been accused of not acting over the case of a U.S. priest alleged to have abused 200 deaf boys, according to media reports on Monday.

Pope Benedict XVI looks at a bishop's cap being blown away by the wind as he leads his weekly audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican November 4, 2009. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo]

At the Palm Sunday service, Pope Benedict did not directly mention the scandal, or his own role in it. But he told the tens of thousands of people gathered to hear him that God helped lead "towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion."

He also said man sometimes fell to the "lowest, vulgar levels" and sunk "into the swamp of sin and dishonesty".

Meanwhile, on Sunday, protesters called for the Pope to resign, because he failed to ensure priests who abused young people were reported to police.

But Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster defended the Pope, saying the Pope had introduced rules to protect children. "He changed the law so that sexual offences committed with anyone under the age of 18 would be a crime in Church law," said Vincent Nichols.

It is reported that the Pope has apologized to victims of abuse before and recently said sorry to them in a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics.

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