Press Release - Vatican Official's Comparison of Child Sex Abuse Scandal to Holocaust is Outrageous

San Diego, California (April 2, 2010) -- On Good Friday (April 02, 2010), Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, who holds the office of preacher of the papal household, delivered his remarks in the traditional prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica.  During that service he compared criticism of  the Catholic Church's handling of the priest sex abuse scandal to the Holocaust.

"As the son of holocaust survivors and an attorney who has represented hundreds of childhood sexual abuse victims, I find the comparison of abuse victim's criticism of the Catholic Church's handling of criminal priests to the slaughter of millions of Jews as an insult to the memory of my parents and others like them" said Irwin Zalkin of The Zalkin Law Firm, who represents childhood sexual abuse victims in claims against the Catholic Church and other institutions.

"If anything the inverse is true.  The amount of sexual abuse inflicted upon children by priests and other religious of the Catholic Church and the corporate cover up for decades amount to a holocaust against Catholic children" said Zalkin.    "The continuous refusal by the Pope himself to accept responsibility for what he must surely have known, or worse, chose not to know,  is at the core of the anger and frustration felt by victims today.  His apologies ring hollow with them" according to Zalkin.

With offices in New York and San Diego, The Zalkin Law Firm is one of the premier sexual abuse and personal injury law firms in the country. The firm's lawyers have achieved groundbreaking results in numerous high-profile clergy abuse cases across the United States. Mr. Zalkin has negotiated over $200 million in settlements in Catholic clergy sex abuse cases.

Mr. Zalkin is available to speak to the media about clergy sexual abuse and the Child Victim's Act of New York. To speak to Mr. Zalkin about legal representation, please call The Zalkin Law Firm.