This probably falls in the category of "only in America."

A new organization that calls itself a grassroots group of Catholics upset with the hierarchy's current handling of the sex abuse crisis is asking Catholics to voice their disapproval of Pope Benedict XVI by ponying up only a penny when parishes do the Peter's Pence collection later this month that provides humanitarian and emergency relief for people around the world.

Our regular OSV Newsweekly contributor from across the pond, London-based Austen Ivereigh, recently published in the Britain’s daily Guardian newspaper a striking commentary about the clerical sex abuse scandal following Pope Benedict XVI’s latest apology for it. 

The Catholic Church in secularized Europe wasn't healthy before this latest wave of abuse scandals swept the continent. In most countries, Mass attendance is thought to be in the single digits, and the Church's voice is marginalized in the public square.

Pope Benedict closed the Year for Priests with a powerful apology for the Church for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. “We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved,” said Pope Benedict XVI at a closing Mass today for the Year for Priests held in St. Peter’s Square and attended by more than 15,000 priests from 90 countries.

A few weeks ago, Cardinal Tarcicio Bertone kicked up headlines by linking the Church's sexual abuse crisis and pedophilia to homosexuality. Yesterday, however, the Cardinal was clearly echoing the words of Pope Benedict XVI, when he spoke about the crisis within the context of the Year for Priests.

The world's media is focused intently on the Vatican again as the Year for Priests closes. Pope Benedict XVI is expected over the next few days to address an international gathering of priests in Rome for conferences and celebrations to close the jubilee. The big question, of course, is whether he'll again address the issue of clerical sex abuse.

Two interesting articles appeared in recent weeks in Catholic publications on aspects of the current crisis. The first was by Justice Ann M. Burke, the Illinois Supreme Court judge who also served as interim chair of the National Review Board. In the well-known British magazine "The Tablet," Father Raniero Cantalamessa has his first public reflection on the reaction to his Good Friday homily in St. Peter's in which he compared some aspects of the attacks on the Church regarding sex abuse to tendencies in anti-Semitism.

The invaluable media criticism blog "GetReligion" does a good job deconstructing the latest attempt to tie a direct line between Pope Benedict XVI and the mishandling of U.S. abuser priests.

“Why Being Pope Means Never having To Say You’re Sorry: The sex abuse scandal and the limits of atonement” is the provocative headline splashed across the cover of Time and over an image of the back of Pope Benedict’s mitered head. But the Time magazine June 7 cover story is a particularly frustrating example of a media enterprise playing to prejudices with half-truths even to the point of severely misrepresenting the real issues.

Controversial cases involving Italian clerics accused of sexual abuse have received relatively little attention until recently. The wave of such cases internationally, however, has included cases from Italy, and now the Italian bishops are speaking out.