ROME, Jan 16: The Catholic diocese of Rome called on the city’s faithful on Wednesday to back Pope Benedict XVI against academics who fault the Church leader for positions seen as anti-science.

A burgeoning protest against a planned appearance by the pope, who is also the bishop of Rome, at the secular La Sapienza university here prompted Benedict to cancel the engagement, which had been set for Thursday.

Lamenting the “sad events” that led to the cancellation, Rome’s vicar Camillo Ruini urged “all believers, but also all Romans,” to stage a show of support during the pope’s Angelus prayer on Sunday in St Peter’s Square.

Already on Wednesday some 5,000 pilgrims attended the pope’s weekly general audience, many chanting “freedom.” “The Church of Rome expresses its solidarity with its bishop, the pope, and bears witness to the love, confidence, admiration and gratitude of the people of Rome towards Benedict XVI,” Ruini said.

Many scientists criticise the intellectual, conservative pope, a respected theologian, for a series of positions he has taken that they say subordinate science and reason to faith.

The protest against the visit was spearheaded by physicist Marcello Cini, a professor emeritus of La Sapienza, who wrote to rector Renato Guarini complaining of an “incredible violation” of the university’s autonomy.

Sixty-seven professors and researchers of the sprawling university’s physics department, as well as radical students, joined in the call for the pope to stay away on Thursday, the start of the university’s academic year.—AFP