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Archbishop Dolan: New face of the church?
Allen is writing a book about Dolan.
"What does his election tell us then?" Safer asked.
"The bishops pretty rationally understand they've got an image problem in the court of public opinion in the United States in the early 21st century. They wanted to elect their best front man. And that front man is Archbishop Tim Dolan of New York," Allen said.
Allen says the bishops hope that the sheer force of Dolan's personality can help the church move beyond the sex abuse scandals. "The sexual abuse crisis that we have lived through over the last decade is the most serious crisis ever to hit the American Catholic church. I mean that has been a cancer, in terms of the internal life of the church, that is still spreading," he said.
It's a crisis Dolan witnessed firsthand as archbishop of Milwaukee. He was sent there to replace a bishop who resigned amid his own sex scandal, and Dolan had to deal with a rash of child abuse cases. He revealed the names of 43 predatory priests and had to sell church property to pay tens of millions of dollars to victims.
"Those where some of the more difficult, wrenching, touching moments in my life. Some of them were terribly painful and did not go well. Others I remember with gratitude, crying together, praying together. Those were very powerful moments that you don't forget," Dolan recalled.
"Do you fear that aftereffects of these scandals are just gonna live on and on and on?" Safer asked.
"In some ways I don't want it to be over because this was such a crisis in the Catholic church, that in a way we don't wanna get over it too easily. This needs to haunt us," Dolan said.
Defending and celebrating the church is his life's work, and the work isn't exclusive to New York: Safer caught up with him in Rome, where he was on official business for the Vatican.
"Do you get any kind of special feeling when you're here or is it just simply a visit to world headquarters?" Safer asked.
"It's always like coming home," Dolan said.
Dolan took us to his old haunt - the North American College, the American seminary that trains the best and the brightest.
Dolan says it is essential that these men are fully prepared for what he calls a "happy healthy celibate priesthood."
"But aren't you losing some really good people that way?" Safer asked.
"I don't think there's any denying it, Morley, that perhaps if the church dropped its obligation of celibacy there might be, would be more candidates right away," Dolan said.
"The sum of what I'm saying is that an awful lot of practicing Catholics feel that the degree of abuse that is going on would not be happening if the priesthood was attracting couples," Safer said.
"I don't know if - what we know scholarship-wise would back that up, Morley. The greatest culprits in sexual abuse are unfortunately married men. So, I don't know if marriage is the answer, although I would have to agree with you, that's a popular argument. I don't think it holds water," Dolan said.
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