The sudden resignation of the most senior Roman Catholic cardinal in
Britain, who stepped aside on Monday in the face of accusations that he
made unwanted sexual advances toward priests years ago, showed that the
taint of scandal could force a cardinal from participating in the
selection of a new pope.
His exit came as at least a dozen other cardinals tarnished with
accusations that they had failed to remove priests accused of sexually
abusing minors were among those gathering in Rome to prepare for the
conclave to select a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.
There was no sign that the church’s promise to confront the sexual
abuse scandal had led to direct pressure on those cardinals to exempt
themselves from the conclave.
Advocates for abuse victims who were in Rome on Tuesday focused
particular ire on Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los
Angeles, and called for him to be excluded from the conclave.
But
Cardinal Mahony, who has vigorously defended his record, was already in
Rome, posting on Twitter about the weather.
Even stalwart defenders of the church point out that to disqualify
Cardinal Mahony would leave many more cardinals similarly vulnerable.
Many of the men who will go into the Sistine Chapel to elect a pope they
hope will help the church recover from the bruising scandal of sexual
abuse have themselves been blemished by it.
“Among bishops and cardinals, certainly the old guys who have been
involved for so long, sure they’re going to have blood on their hands,”
said Thomas G. Plante, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara
University, who has served on the American bishops’ national abuse
advisory board and has written three books on sexual abuse.
“So when
Cardinal Mahony says he’s being scapegoated, in some respects I think
he’s right. All the focus is on him, but what about the other guys?”
Among the many challenges facing the church, addressing the wounds
caused by sexual abuse is among the top priorities, church analysts say.
When Benedict was elected pope in 2005, many Catholics hoped that his
previous experience at the helm of the Vatican office that dealt with abuse cases would result in substantive changes.
Benedict has repeatedly apologized to victims, and listened personally
to their testimonies of pain. After the abuse scandal paralyzed the
church in Europe in 2010, and began to emerge on other continents,
Benedict issued new policies for bishops to follow on handling sexual
abuse accusations, and he held a conference at the Vatican on the issue.
But despite calls from many Catholics, he never removed prelates who,
court cases and documents revealed, put children at risk by failing to
report pedophiles or remove them from the priesthood.
It is not that these cardinals behaved so differently from the others,
or that they do not have achievements to their names. It is just that
they happened to come from pinpoints on the Catholic world map where
long-hidden secrets became public because victims organized, government
officials investigated, lawyers sued or the news media paid attention.
They include cardinals from Belgium, Chile and Italy. They include the
dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, who is accused of
taking large monetary gifts from a religious order, the Legion of
Christ, and halting an investigation into its founder, the Rev. Marcial
Maciel — who was later exposed as a pathological abuser and liar.
They also include cardinals reviled by many in their own countries, like
Cardinal Sean Brady, the primate of All Ireland, who survived an uproar
after government investigations uncovered endemic cover-ups of the
sexual and physical abuse of minors.
“There’s so many of them,” said Justice Anne Burke, a judge in Illinois
who served on the American bishops’ first advisory board 10 years ago.
“They all have participated in one way or another in having actual
information about criminal conduct, and not doing anything about it.
What are you going to do? They’re all not going to participate in the
conclave?”
Even one cardinal frequently mentioned as a leading candidate for pope
has been accused of turning a blind eye toward abuse victims. A
Canadian, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, issued apologies to the many victims of
abuse in church boarding schools in Quebec Province, but left behind
widespread resentment when he reportedly refused to meet with them.
Much of the attention has been focused on Cardinal Mahony. Last month a
court ordered the release of 12,000 pages of internal church files on
abusive priests, including many damaging documents with his signature.
The documents reveal, among other things, that he advised priests to
stay out of California to avoid arrest and prosecution.
Other Americans who have failed to remove priests accused of abuse, but
received less attention, include Cardinal Justin Rigali, the retired
archbishop of Philadelphia, and Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop
of Chicago, according to Terry McKiernan, co-director and president of BishopAccountability.org, a Web site that tracks abuse cases.
Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned from the Archdiocese of Boston in
2002 at the height of the American scandal and moved to Rome, where he
was assigned to preside at a majestic basilica, is too old to vote in
the coming conclave. However, he is eligible to participate in the
general congregation meetings that precede the conclave.
In Chile, sexual abuse survivors and their advocates have aimed the
spotlight on Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a former archbishop of
Santiago. They say that for years he ignored their accusations against
one of the country’s most prominent and influential priests, the Rev.
Fernando Karadima, and refused to meet with the victims or to conduct an
investigation.
After the victims publicized their claims, court and church
investigations against Father Karadima found him guilty of the abuses,
and in early 2011 the Vatican ordered him to retire to “a life of prayer
and penitence.”
But Cardinal Errázuriz is expected to vote in the
conclave.
The senior British prelate who resigned on Monday, Cardinal Keith
O’Brien, said he would not attend the conclave. Three priests and a
former priest accused him of making sexual advances. Although the men
were not minors at the time, he held a position of authority as their
church superior.
At a news conference in Rome on Tuesday, David Clohessy, the national
director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, told
reporters that coming to grips with the sexual abuse crisis should be a
priority for the next pope.
“From the new pope, we’d simply expect courage,” he said. “We long for
the day when church officials announce that this cardinal or this bishop
is being demoted because church officials have found proof of
wrongdoing and church officials want to clean things up.”