Critics note papal visit excludes Boston

NEW YORK, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Some Roman Catholics questioned why Pope Benedict XVI's U.S. itinerary next April excludes Boston, a hotbed of sexual abuse allegations against priests.

The papal visit was announced this week and includes visits over five days to Washington and New York to address the United Nations and to visit the site where terrorists brought down the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

But sexual abuse victims advocates, including the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, claim the 80-year-old pontiff is missing a "golden opportunity" to confront the crisis head-on, Time magazine reported.

The same year as the terror attacks, Boston Archdiocese Cardinal Bernard Law was forced to resign after admitting he'd defended a priest who he knew had sexually abused young members of his church.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior research fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, told the magazine the scheduling wasn't difficult to explain.

"The choice of Washington and New York was preordained," Reese said. "If they went to a third diocese, everyone else would say 'why didn't you come to us?'"