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Pope Benedict XVI urged young people on Monday to follow "the call" to the priesthood as Catholic groups back in his native Germany hit out at his silence over a snowballing paedophilia scandal.

"Don't be afraid, dear young people, if the Lord calls you to the religious, monastic or missionary life," the pope said in a message issued ahead of World Youth Day on March 28.

"He can impart deep joy to those who respond with courage," wrote the pope. "I wish to exhort youths and adolescents to be very attentive to a call from the Lord ... on the path of a priestly ministry."

The rallying cry came as the Catholic Church struggles with damaging child sex abuse scandals in several European countries, including in Germany, the 82-year-old pope's country of birth.

Since the first revelations of abuse dating back to the 1970s and 1980s at an elite Jesuit-run school in Berlin emerged in January, former victims have alleged abuse at two-thirds of Germany's 27 dioceses.

One of those implicated is a boarding school attached to Regensburg cathedral's choir. The pope's elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, who ran the choir for 30 years, has denied all knowledge.

On Friday the diocese of Munich and Freising said that the pope, when he was archbishop there, had approved in 1980 giving a priest reportedly suspected of abusing an 11-year-old boy Church housing for "therapy".

Two years later, by which time the pope had been transferred to the Vatican, the priest was given pastoral duties in a Bavarian town and convicted of sexual abuse of minors in 1986, according to the diocese.

The vicar-general at the time on Friday said he assumed "all responsibility" for the "bad mistake."

Benedict has spoken out several times since the start of his papacy in 2005 on child sex abuse, describing it last month as a "heinous crime" and a "grave sin."

But he is yet to comment directly on Germany, critics say.

Bishop Stephan Ackerman of Trier, charged with shedding light on the scandal, said in an interview that the Church was guilty of trying to hush up abuse.

"According to our information, there has been concealment," he told the Rhein Zeitung daily.

"In cases where there has not been the will to shed light and where abusers have been simply transferred, we must admit there has been concealment," the daily's online edition quoted him as saying.

Senior Church figures in Germany meanwhile called for priestly celibacy to be reviewed, a tradition that critics say makes abuse more likely and puts off large numbers of would-be priests.

The Vatican meanwhile confirmed that three Brazilian clergymen had been removed in a paedophilia scandal, but said none were bishops as reported by a Portuguese-language website.

"One was removed from his parish and faces charges in the civil justice system," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said, adding that the other two had been suspended from their duties pending an investigation.

The scandal -- the first to erupt in Latin America since a wave of predator priest scandals hit several European Catholic churches -- reportedly erupted last Thursday when local television in northeastern Araparica aired a video showing an 82-year-old prelate having sex with a 19-year-old youth.

Amid the snowballing scandal, Vatican number two Tarcisio Bertone said Tuesday that the Roman Catholic Church enjoys "special help from on high" as it faces its detractors amid a string of paedophile priest scandals.

AFP