Next Pope Challenges: Priest Sex Abuse

Fox News Radio
March 1, 2013

http://radio.foxnews.com/2013/03/01/next-pope-challenges-priest-sex-abuse/#.UTGzJVfm41I

[with audio]

While many will be paying close attention to the selection of the next Pope, there may be no group here in the U.S. more interested in what happens than victims of priest sex abuse.

FOX News Radio’s Jessica Rosenthal reports in our ongoing series:

Victims of priest sex abuse in California say ideally the next Pope…

(Miller) “Whoever it’s going to be must continue to expose child molesting clerics and more importantly cooperate with law enforcement.”

But Esther Miller who was abused by a priest in the ’70?s doesn’t believe that’ll happen. Neither does abuse victim Joelle Casteix…

(Casteix) “These continued scandals in their eyes do not show a need for the protection of children, but instead a need to cover up the wrongdoings of the past and the present.”

She points to the long fought legal battle, years after the church settled abuse claims here in LA, that finally resulted in the release of court documents. They showed how Cardinal Roger Mahony covered up abuse by transferring and moving priests around.

Former priest and now canon lawyer Patrick Wall says all of it means the church hierarchy may lean toward picking a Pope who protects the church first.

(Wall) “I know most people think this is a sex abuse problem, but this truly is a financial and power problem.”

Fewer believers he says, means fewer dollars in the collection plates.