Arizona Daily Star
A year ago when the conclave was over, many of us went home depressed (in part perhaps by the unseasonably chill and wet Roman spring). Richard John Neuhaus, an American priest and editor, was allegedly predicting that there would be a house cleaning in the church in this country. He seemed to know whom the new pope would clean out. Like the Lord High Executioner in "The Mikado," he apparently had a little list.
I adopted the stand of the Swiss theologian Hans Kung, once a colleague and friend of Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and then a bitter enemy. Kung offered wise advice that most people on both sides of the Catholic divide ignored. Give him time, said Professor Kung, suspend judgment and see what he does. ...
Before the pope was elected, the Rev. Thomas Reece of America was done in by the secret denunciation of a clique of American bishops who were involved in the sexual abuse scandal and was not supported strongly enough by his Jesuit superiors. The instruction — not a doctrinal statement — on gays in seminaries did not say that they all should be banned, though it suited the interests of both the gays and the gay bashers to create that image. The comment on Harry Potter was in a private letter written years ago and not an official position.