VATICAN CITY–The Vatican on Sunday denied its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe and again defended the Pope's handling of the crisis.

Suggestions that the celibacy rule was in part responsible for the "deviant behaviour" of sexually abusive priests have swirled in recent days, with opinion pieces in German newspapers blaming it for fuelling abuse and even Italian commentators questioning the rule.

Much of the furor was spurred by comments from one of the Pope's closest advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who called last week for an honest examination of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of sex abuse.

"Part of it is the question of celibacy, as well as the subject of character development. And part of it is a large portion of honesty, in the church but also in society," he wrote in the online edition of his diocesan newsletter.

His office quickly stressed Schoenborn wasn't calling into question priestly celibacy, which Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed as recently as Friday as an "expression of the gift of oneself to God and others."

But Schoenborn has a history of being receptive to arguments that a celibate priesthood is increasingly problematic for the church, primarily because it limits the number of men who seek ordination. Last June, he presented the Vatican with a lay initiative signed by prominent Austrian Catholics calling for the celibacy rule to be abolished and for married men to be allowed to become priests.