Vatican Decries Media for 'Ignoble Attempt' to Smear the Pope Over Sex Abuse 1.57K Ravi Somaiya 03/28/10 11:26AM Filed to: Abusers Abusers the pope Catholic Church And by 'smear' they mean 'air perfectly legitimate, well-reported claims that the pope, the actual pope, was complicit in covering up the sexual abuse of young boys by Catholic clergy'. It's just a matter of semantics. [NYT]