Pope Benedict has led the world’s Catholics into Easter with the holiest day of the liturgical calendar clouded by persistent allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.

The 82-year-old Pope presided at an Easter Eve service that began late in the night (local time) in St Peter’s Basilica.

During the service, he received six adult converts into the Church and administered the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation to them.

Wearing gold vestments and looking tired, he weaved his sermon around the theme of eternal life.

In the past three days of Holy Week services he has made no reference to the scandal that has sorely hurt the Church’s image around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States.

The celebrations leading up to Easter Sunday have been clouded by accusations the Church in several countries mishandled and covered up episodes of sexual abuse of children by priests, some dating back decades.

In response, the Vatican has accused the media of attempting to smear the Pope.

Some reports have accused him of negligence in handling abuse cases in previous roles as a cardinal in Germany and in Rome.

The Vatican has denied any cover-up over the abuse of 200 deaf boys in the United States by Reverend Lawrence Murphy from 1950 to 1974.

The New York Times reported the Vatican and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, were warned about Murphy but he was not defrocked.

This year, Easter and the Jewish Passover fell in the same week.

In Jerusalem the coincidence has prompted ecumenical gatherings during Holy Week.

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre thousands of locals and foreigners packed the many corners of the ancient church for the ceremony of the Holy Fire, which symbolises the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross.

Roman Catholics and Protestants, however, eschew the Holy Fire rite. Western visitors have for centuries scoffed at the ceremony in which the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem produces a lighted candle from the sealed and empty tomb without the aid of matches or other, visible, terrestrial aids.

Jewish outrage

Jewish leaders from around the world have condemned a Good Friday sermon by the Pope’s personal preacher, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, in which he said the attacks on the Catholic Church and the pope over the sexual abuse scandal were comparable to “collective violence” against Jews.

An international Jewish rights group spokesman, Rabbi Marvin Hier, also condemned the comments.

“How can you compare the collective guilt assigned to the Jews, which caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people, to perpetrators who abuse their faith and their calling by sexually abusing children?” he said.

A Vatican spokesman says the comparison “is absolutely not the line of the Vatican and of the Catholic Church”.

Victims of sexual abuse also criticised Father Cantalamessa.

“This ridiculous attempt to hide the crimes of the [Church] hierarchy inside of Jewish suffering shows just how far this pope seems willing to go to stop the truth from emerging,” said Peter Isely, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).