Do We Trust a Pope Elected by Cardinals Tainted by Scandal?

By Ronnie Polaneczky
Philadelphia Daily News
March 14, 2013

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130314_Do_we_trust_a_pope_elected_by_cardinals_tainted_by_scandal_.html

I'D FEEL MORE hopeful about newly elected Pope Francis if some of the cardinals who elected him Wednesday had excused themselves from voting.

The new pope must reckon with the ongoing fallout of the worldwide sex-abuse scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church to its core. Although priests have been convicted of molesting innocents, no cardinal has even been defrocked for his part in covering up the perversions that have devastated generations of families.

What's the likelihood that these self-interested cardinals would vote for a pontiff who might remove them from the church?

I'm thinking about men like retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony.

For years, Mahony did all he could to keep law-enforcement officials from investigating priests who'd molested kids. In January, newly released church records so damned Mahony that his successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, forbade him from participating in public ministry again.

But the stunning rebuke didn't keep Mahony from flying to Rome to help pick the new pontiff. Coincidentally, about the same time Mahony was casting his vote Wednesday, lawyers back in L.A. were settling four sex-abuse claims in which Mahony was implicated.

So maybe he just wanted to get out of Dodge before the $9.9 million payout made headlines. Still, his presence in Vatican City was repugnant to at least one member of the conclave of cardinals.

Italian Cardinal Velasio de Paolis told a local newspaper that he found Mahony's presence "disturbing" and even suggested that Mahony recuse himself from the vote.

You know who else should've had the grace to bow out? Our own retired Cardinal Justin Rigali, who grossly mishandled sex-abuse claims here. And Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who has admitted to protecting perverted priests at the expense of children who were raped.

What exactly does it take to lose your gig when you're a cardinal? The defilement of the pontiff himself?

Catholic experts will say that these disgraced cardinals had no choice but to participate in the papal election since canon law requires they cast a vote.

But that didn't stop Britain's top cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, from taking a bye. He resigned last month amid accusations that he hit on younger clergy in his diocese (which put O'Brien's oft-expressed homophobic leanings into a despicable context). And when he voluntarily stayed away from Rome, not wanting his presence to distract from the holy duties at hand, no one made a fuss.

Besides, points out James Salt, executive director of the national reform group Catholics United, canon law permits cardinals to refrain from voting if a "grave impediment" requires their attention.

"I can't think of a more grave impediment to the health of the Catholic Church than the sex-abuse scandal," says Salt, whose group called for Mahony to recuse himself from the papal vote. "How we deal with this deep wound directly relates to the future of the church in the modern world."

If Mahony and other cardinals complicit in the coverup of abuse had refrained from voting, imagine the powerful impact of their gesture. It would've humbly telegraphed to the world that these men were willing to put the healing of the church before their personal interest in making papal history.

Still, we don't know how each cardinal voted. And it's too soon to know the kind of leader Pope Francis will be.

For now, all Barbara Dorris has is hope.

"We hope he will be bold and courageous, like Pope Benedict was," said Dorris, national outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She and other SNAP colleagues were in Rome on Wednesday meeting with sex-abuse victims who say priests are still offending, right under the Vatican's nose. "It took courage for Benedict to retire when he knew he could no longer serve the church the way he thought he should.

"We hope the new pope will be equally bold and courageous and will discipline the bishops and cardinals who participated in the coverup," she said. "A new pope does not mean the problems have gone away. We need to remain vigilant to protect all children."