AFP
November 13, 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j2fNN4tDtpwle-Ws_FkVrTddhtHQ
WASHINGTON — Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, was Tuesday elected head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, drawing anger from critics who say he ignored cases of sexual abuse of children by priests.
George, who had served as vice-president of the bishops' council -- seen as an automatic ticket to the presidency -- won 85 percent of votes cast by his fellow bishops at their annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, the USCCB said.
George served in Rome between 1974 and 1986 after being elected Vicar General of the Oblates. In 1990 he was appointed by Pope John Paul II as Bishop of Yakima, Washington. In 1995 he was named archbishop of Chicago, and was also elevated by John Paul to the College of Cardinals in 1998.
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| Cardinal Francis George |
But the election of the 70-year-old Chicago native, who is seen as a Vatican loyalist, came as a blow to the Voice of the Faithful group, which was set up to help victims of sex abuse scandals which rocked the US Catholic church in 2002.
"We are naturally disappointed that Cardinal George was elected. We would have hoped they would have elected someone with a better record on child protection," Voice of the Faithful president Mary Pat Fox told AFP.
"We sent a letter to all the bishops in August, requesting that they think about this, talk amongst themselves and hopefully come to the same decision as we have -- that Cardinal George was not the right choice to head the USCCB," she said.
"Now more than ever in the US, Catholics need moral leadership and accountability and we respectfully request that you ask Cardinal George to step aside so that a bishop with a track record of protecting children may be elected," said the letter, a copy of which was seen by AFP.
According to a timeline attached to the letter, the Chicago archdiocese ignored or covered up allegations of sexual misconduct against Father Daniel McCormack that dated back to 1988 when he was in pre-seminary school.
McCormack was sentenced to five years in jail in July after pleading guilty to sexually abusing five boys aged eight to 11.
The timeline shows that McCormack was allowed to work with children and repeatedly promoted by the church despite allegations of abuse of minors in his care.
A day before McCormack was arrested by police in Chicago at the end of August 2005, after a mother accused him of twice abusing her son, the priest was promoted to dean by George, Voice of the Faithful said in the timeline.
"Father McCormack, even though he knew him and thought he was a good guy, had these allegations against him. Cardinal George should have known to have pulled him from being in ministry with children, but instead he was allowed to stay in a school and coaching environment," Fox told AFP.
"To us that indicates that Cardinal George doesn't understand the impact abuse has on children and their families for the rest of their lives," she said.
George's election to the head of the USCCB came a day after the Vatican announced Pope Benedict XVI would make his first trip to the United States next year.
The trip will take the pontiff to Washington and New York but not to Boston, the northeastern US city which is home to a large Irish-Catholic community, where the clergy abuse scandal broke in 2002.
Then, Boston archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law confessed he had protected a priest he knew had sexually abused young members of his church.
Groups representing clergy abuse victims have speculated that the pope was avoiding Boston because he was afraid of protests from victims and their families.
According to the BishopAccountability.org website, more than 5,000 US priests have been exposed by their archdioceses as pedophiles since the 1950s.
The church in the United States has paid out around 2.8 billion dollars in damages to victims since 2002, and several dioceses that have been hit by clergy abuse lawsuits have declared bankruptcy.
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