letter on the matter as early as this week.

Many Vatican watchers now expect that letter to address the church abuse allegations roiling broader Europe.

Last week Catholic bishops in the Netherlands announced an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by clergy after hundreds of reports flowed in following revelations about such abuse at a Dutch boarding school in the 1960s and 1970s. Accusations of sex abuse have also begun mounting in Austria.

"There's certainly a domino effect, a kind of momentum building," said David Gibson, a Vatican expert and Benedict biographer. "Once allegations come out, two things happen: it emboldens other victims to speak up and it emboldens the authorities, because the public outrage about these crimes make the church less of a sacred cow."

In some ways, the falloutthe Holy Father in questions of abuse," a Vatican spokesman said Saturday. "To any objective observer, it is clear that these efforts have failed."

But the allegations in Germany and across Europe are likely to keep coming. "It's a very volatile and dangerous time for the Vatican," said Gibson. "How can he ask bishops (who chose to retain abusive priests) to resign in Ireland if it comes out tomorrow that he did similar things?"

Until now, Benedict has been praised in some quarters for his handling of the church's sex abuse crisis. He is the first pontiff to meet with victims of church abuse in the United States, for instance.

"This is not just another crisis story about the papacy that has had plenty of crises," Allen said. "It's happening in