Groups name "dirty" cardinals ahead of papal conclave
In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, cardinals attend a meeting, at the Vatican, March 4, 2013. /AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano
To call the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church the elephant in the room ahead of the conclave to choose the next pope is to not do justice to the enormity of the problem the institution still faces, and will likely face for years to come.
Addressing the problem directly, abuse victims and their advocates in four countries so far have begun naming various cardinals they believe should either be removed from papal consideration, or even from the very process to name the next pontiff, due to their actions around the scandal. Some of the names they have singled out are considered front-runners by Vatican observers.
"It is difficult. Who would be a good pope? I don't know," said Becky Ianni, Washington, D.C. and Virginia director for the advocacy group SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests. "It's really hard to say."
SNAP has singled out a "Dirty Dozen" cardinals who are contenders for pope that they consider "to be the worst choices in terms of protecting kids, healing victims, and exposing corruption."
The members of the "Dirty Dozen" cardinals, according to SNAP, are: Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga (Honduras), Norberto Rivera (Mexico), Marc Ouellet (Canada), Peter Turkson (Ghana), George Pell (Australia), Tarcisio Bertone (Italy), Angelo Scola (Italy), Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), Dominik Duka (Czech Republic), Sean O'Malley (United States), Timothy Dolan (United States), and Donald Wuerl (United States).
Of those, Vatican magazine senior editor and CBS News contributor Delia Gallagher identified Dolan, Maradiga, O'Malley, Ouellet, Sandri, Scola, Turkson, and Carrera as legitimate contenders to be the next pope.
Victims in Mexico also singled out Cardinal Rivera, who is among SNAP's "Dirty Dozen." In a change.org petition, they wrote directly to Rivera, saying "covering up and not acting to prevent sexual abuses of children by pedophile priests strips you of the moral stature required to participate in the election of the new leader of the Catholic Church." So far, they have received nearly 19,000 signatures.
Beyond those who are in contention for becoming pope, many say abuse-tainted cardinals shouldn't even vote in the conclave.
Italian Cardinal Domenico Calcagno is among the many who advocates say should not participate in choosing the next pope. He is singled out for "complete and utter failure to act against pedophile priests ... in which he allowed (them) to act like wolves in a flock of sheep," according to a Google translation of the change.org petition calling for him to drop out of the conclave. So far the petition on Calcagno has received nearly 3,000 signatures.
Victims in Chile said recently said Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz failed to act on accusations that they were abused by one of the country's most popular priests, even refusing to meet them in person, reports the Associated Press.
One cardinal long since singled out as someone who shouldn't vote for the next pope is the disgraced former Archbishop of Los Angeles Roger Mahony, who was stripped of all his public duties after thousands of pages of evidence were released as part of a lawsuit against the church showing he participated in a bold cover up of priest sex abuse in his diocese. Victims' groups are outraged that he has not publicly wavered over his determination to participate in the conclave.
In addition to Calcagno and Mahony, SNAP has singled out another dozen or so cardinals who are unlikely contenders they believe are too tainted by scandal to participate in the conclave.
So far, the only scandal-tainted cardinal to drop out of the conclave is Keith O'Brien of the U.K., who was accused of "inappropriate contact" with fellow priests. He recently admitted his "sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal," and promised to take no longer take part in the "public life" of the Catholic Church.
For his part, U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan -- one of SNAP's "Dirty Dozen" -- claims the U.S. church at least is on the "right track" when it comes to dealing with sex abuse.
Speaking to CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey at the Vatican ahead of the conclave, Dolan acknowledged the "torture the Catholics went through in the United States."
Dolan, however, stands accused of acting improperly when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee. The New York Times reports there is documentation that he "authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood," while not reporting any abusive priests to law enforcement. In response to that accusation and others that he failed to act on the abuse of parishioners, Dolan called them "false, preposterous and unjust."
Whatever the truth, Dolan claimed in a recent "Face the Nation" interview that "there's no cardinal with his head in the sand when it comes to these issues."
Some are predicting that the discussions over how to handle these issues are likely to lengthen the selection process for the next pope, a claim Dolan seemed to agree with.
"Sexual immorality, perversion, abuse of children, (the things) that affects all elements of society and culture, are particularly hideous when it comes to the Church," Dolan said. "And that that will be an issue? I predict it will."
The Vatican itself has been very touchy about calls for abuse-tainted cardinals to drop out of the papal selection process. When calls for Cardinal Mahony to withdrawal first went up, Ambrogio Piazzoni, vice prefect of the Vatican Library, told reporters on Feb. 20 that all eligible members of the College of Cardinals are required to attend and participate in the papal conclave. (Canonical law scholars have since pointed out this is not necessarily true.)
In response to SNAP's "Dirty Dozen" list, Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told reports on Wednesday they are "well aware" of the accusations, but that it is not up to advocacy groups to determine "who should participate or not in the conclave."
Victims' groups have recently begun pointing out that most of the abuse allegations and trials and revelations have come from Europe and the Americas, where the legal, media, and investigative systems are more robust than places like Africa and Asia, which nonetheless have a huge and old Catholic population. All this is to say the sex abuse scandal may yet be found to have an even more global reach than is currently known.
"It doesn't help when one of the cardinals from Africa says: 'We don't have that problem here because we don't have homosexuality,'" Ianni said, referring to Cardinal Turkson, a strong papal contender.
Ianni, herself a priest abuse victim, says she and many other survivors hold out little hope for a positive outcome from the conclave, regardless of who participates.
"Is getting a new pope really gonna make a new difference?" Ianni asked. "The last two didn't. I don't have a lot of hope that a new pope is gonna change things dramatically. Whatever pope they pick, he has to take decisive action in the first few weeks for victims to know something's gonna change. Benedict was great for apologizing, but nothing changed."
Pederast perverts, or at least those that shield them, taking over the Catholic Church. How does this organization expect to maintain any moral authority? Lends a whole new dimension to the term 'bugger's muddle'.
I am not Roman Catholic though I have long admired the Catholic imagination, heritage, and richness as well as its many good ministries. I do not expect the Catholic Church to follow my rubrics or standards. I do expect members of the hierarchy to be much more accountable and responsible than they have been.
I have personally known victims of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse in diverse contexts and within different institutions. I do not know if hiding this abuse happened any more frequently in Catholic institutions than in others. I doubt very much that it has. However, the cover up by the Church has greatly diminished the work, ministry, and witness of this Church—one to whom many of us have looked for leadership, modeling, and example.
The sexual abuse scandal is part of a large sense of disengagement with reality on the part of many Catholic leaders. I do not expect the Church to conform to the standards of secular society but I do expect its leaders to engage themselves properly, professionally, and responsibly. Clearly, many leaders have failed to meet even a minimum standard of ethical conduct.
The convoluted nature of how the College of Cardinals works gives one only fleeting hope it can select someone adequate to the task of reform now needed. I hope my feelings are wrong. My prayers are with the cardials and all my brother and sister Catholic who have not given up on their Church or abandoned her.
Just when I thought the YouTube comment section was the low of the low. Thanks to all who actually care for abused children and those that bear witness to what really occurs to an individual in trying to survive the impact. To those who only care about this organization and blame the pedo's only, the ones who protect them are just as guilty. To those who blame it on gays, well, you are a dying breed and just as the dinosaurs left, so will you. People are more conscious in the collective...your children will not stand for this ignorance, no matter how hard yo pound it into them. ....and yes, I am a recovering catholic. Those of you filled with hate and call yourself Christians only show how mislead you are. Dd you ever ask what Jesus would do? When the Roman Empire raped and pillaged, how children are starving on the street and the pope wears grabs that equal more than what hundreds of children could eat in weeks? Such delusion, and your faith has become a moral retardant that has rotted your hearts.
You would hope there is someone within the college of cardinals who could be a pope with integrity, who will start to take immediate actions to stop this abuse. Yet with that in mind, since all of these cardinals were promoted by the last 2 popes, we have our doubts.
The sex abuse and cover up within the church hierarchy is still going on to this day, even in the USA. Cardinals and bishops are still covering up sex crimes against kids, they are still not removing predator clergy, and they still are not reporting to the police. Their so called "zero tolerance" policy is not being followed by the bishops who created it. They don't have to, because there is no punishment to force the bishops to change their ways of protecting their image and the institution rather than protecting innocent kids.
It is so sad that more kids may have to be sexually abused before any of these church officials are held responsible. Many of the church officials need to spend some time behind bars for any real change to happen. They still think they can get away with it even to this day. Victims are very upset and frustrated, because they are being ignored and intimidated, and they fear other children will be dealt the life sentence of being sexually abused as they have.
Silence is not an option anymore. Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com, "SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
Tsk....tsk... so many people "Catholic bashing"....I assume most are not Catholics. Question: Why are they bashing the institution (the Catholic Church) when it is clearly the individuals who committed the vile acts are to blame? This is so typical and similar to "Islam bashing" when it is clearly the terrorists who should be hunted down!
Thankfully the opinion of those folks over at SNAP will have no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of this papal election. SNAP isn't about protecting children anyway. Their only interest is in making as much money off of abuse victims as they can once their lawyer Jeff Anderson has ripped everyone off for as much money as he can get. Anderson is so low he gives pond scum a bad name.
"Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do" Matthew 9:12 The largest proclaimer of Christ, the Catholic Church, has the most seriously wounded (sinners) who have caused other disastrous wounds. As wounded as some priests and bishops have been throughout the centuries they have not been able to destroy this Church for 2000 years (acknowledge Divine Intervention in that fact alone). The saints will keep praying for the sinners and calling them to repentance. No faithful Catholic is proud of wounded leaders. I believe in the teachings of the Church, and I also believe that anyone who (by the grace of God) adheres to Her teachings will gain holiness. Also know that anyone who calls Her the spawn of Satan or even the ***** of Babylon puts her in good standing because I think someone else was accused with a similar charge: Mark 3:22.
"Also know that anyone who calls Her the spawn of Satan or even the ***** of Babylon puts her in good standing because I think someone else was accused with a similar charge: Mark 3:22."
Twelve of the roughly 115 cardinals eligible to become pope are either perverts or concealers of perversion? Nice numbers. What makes priests have ratio of perverts that's far higher than the general population? According to the FBI, there are about 250,000 convicted sex offenders at any one time serving sentences in U.S. jails and prisons. Arkansas appears to have the largest percentage of CONVICTED sex offenders at .03-percent according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children yet the College of Cardinals, based on Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests (SNAP), have a "Dirty Dozen" list of the worst. That works out to 10.4 percent of the cardinals being deeply involved in covering up sexual hi-jinks. EVEN WORSE, according to the CBS story: "SNAP has singled out another dozen or so cardinals who are unlikely contenders they believe are too tainted by scandal to participate in the conclave." Astonishingly to this former crime journalist is that the two dozen tainted cardinals are predicted to participate in the papal electoral process despite some calls by those in the church that the be banned from participating. How does the Roman Catholic Church expect to root out such endemic perversion and concealment is practiced at the highest levels. SNAP has named some names but apparently chooses to face the really serious core issue. If the Vatican is to root out such behavior, it needs to start by cleaning its own church aisles and defrocking all such priests. Reportedly there is enough evidence to take such action despite many of the priests, bishops and cardinals having successfully dodged criminal prosecution. Something is completely wrong when they are allowed to continue sitting in confessionals hearing parishioners say: "Bless me father for I have sinned..."
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I have personally known victims of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse in diverse contexts and within different institutions. I do not know if hiding this abuse happened any more frequently in Catholic institutions than in others. I doubt very much that it has. However, the cover up by the Church has greatly diminished the work, ministry, and witness of this Church—one to whom many of us have looked for leadership, modeling, and example.
The sexual abuse scandal is part of a large sense of disengagement with reality on the part of many Catholic leaders. I do not expect the Church to conform to the standards of secular society but I do expect its leaders to engage themselves properly, professionally, and responsibly. Clearly, many leaders have failed to meet even a minimum standard of ethical conduct.
The convoluted nature of how the College of Cardinals works gives one only fleeting hope it can select someone adequate to the task of reform now needed. I hope my feelings are wrong. My prayers are with the cardials and all my brother and sister Catholic who have not given up on their Church or abandoned her.
To those who only care about this organization and blame the pedo's only, the ones who protect them are just as guilty. To those who blame it on gays, well, you are a dying breed and just as the dinosaurs left, so will you.
People are more conscious in the collective...your children will not stand for this ignorance, no matter how hard yo pound it into them.
....and yes, I am a recovering catholic. Those of you filled with hate and call yourself Christians only show how mislead you are. Dd you ever ask what Jesus would do? When the Roman Empire raped and pillaged, how children are starving on the street and the pope wears grabs that equal more than what hundreds of children could eat in weeks?
Such delusion, and your faith has become a moral retardant that has rotted your hearts.
The sex abuse and cover up within the church hierarchy is still going on to this day, even in the USA. Cardinals and bishops are still covering up sex crimes against kids, they are still not removing predator clergy, and they still are not reporting to the police. Their so called "zero tolerance" policy is not being followed by the bishops who created it. They don't have to, because there is no punishment to force the bishops to change their ways of protecting their image and the institution rather than protecting innocent kids.
It is so sad that more kids may have to be sexually abused before any of these church officials are held responsible. Many of the church officials need to spend some time behind bars for any real change to happen. They still think they can get away with it even to this day. Victims are very upset and frustrated, because they are being ignored and intimidated, and they fear other children will be dealt the life sentence of being sexually abused as they have.
Silence is not an option anymore.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com,
"SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
http://www.dallasblog.com/201004061006346/dallas-blog/jeff-anderson-uses-snap-to-recruit-sex-abuse-clients.html
And Matthew 10:25
According to the FBI, there are about 250,000 convicted sex offenders at any one time serving sentences in U.S. jails and prisons. Arkansas appears to have the largest percentage of CONVICTED sex offenders at .03-percent according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children yet the College of Cardinals, based on Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests (SNAP), have a "Dirty Dozen" list of the worst. That works out to 10.4 percent of the cardinals being deeply involved in covering up sexual hi-jinks. EVEN WORSE, according to the CBS story: "SNAP has singled out another dozen or so cardinals who are unlikely contenders they believe are too tainted by scandal to participate in the conclave."
Astonishingly to this former crime journalist is that the two dozen tainted cardinals are predicted to participate in the papal electoral process despite some calls by those in the church that the be banned from participating. How does the Roman Catholic Church expect to root out such endemic perversion and concealment is practiced at the highest levels. SNAP has named some names but apparently chooses to face the really serious core issue. If the Vatican is to root out such behavior, it needs to start by cleaning its own church aisles and defrocking all such priests. Reportedly there is enough evidence to take such action despite many of the priests, bishops and cardinals having successfully dodged criminal prosecution. Something is completely wrong when they are allowed to continue sitting in confessionals hearing parishioners say: "Bless me father for I have sinned..."