Christians observe Palm Sunday

Christiansaround the worldobserved Palm Sunday as the Roman Catholicchurchgrappled with a clerical abuse scandalthat has spread across Europe to the Pope's native Germany.

Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's entry into Jerusalem and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment ofChrist's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Duringthe Palm Sunday homily, Pope Benedict XVI made no mentionof the abuse scandal, which has drawn new attention to the church's handling of cases of pedophile priests.

But one of the prayers, recited in Portuguese, was "for the young and for those charged with educating them and protecting them."

New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan spentabout five minuteson the topic at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, defending the Pope and sayingheis being unjustly targeted by the media.

The Pope has been accused of ignoring warning signs of an abusive priest in Wisconsin while he was a cardinal.

The Vatican denied there was a coverup in the church's handling ofthe priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf boys in Milwaukee.

In recent weeks, Germanywas rocked by a sex-abuse scandal atCatholic and secular schoolsaftermore than 250 people came forward to say they were molested.

Last year, an investigation in Ireland revealed church leaders had protected priests suspected of sexually abusing children in the Dublin archdiocese for decades.

Last Monday, the Regensburg diocese in eastern Germany said it wasinvestigating four priests and two nuns for allegations that they sexually abused children decades ago.