Catholic journalist Jon Allen writes about Vatican insider Cardinal Angelo Sodano (the current dean of the College of Cardinals) and his apparent lack of good judgment:
If there is accountability for that sort of lapse in the Catholic Church, you certainly couldn’t tell it judging by the current Dean of the College of Cardinals….
In 2010, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, accused Sodano of having blocked a Vatican investigation of the late Cardinal Hans Hermann Gröer, who was accused of various forms of sexual abuse and misconduct and who was eventually stripped of his duties and privileges as a cardinal in 1998. According to Schönborn, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, wanted to launch a trial against Gröer under Church law but Sodano got in the way….
Then there’s the issue of Sodano’s longstanding strong support for Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ, who was found guilty by Ratzinger and his team at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexual abuse and misconduct in 2006 and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. Sodano was a Maciel ally up to the bitter end….
There’s little question that the cumulative weight of Sodano’s career suggests an official who’s been unwilling, or unable, to take on board the real nature of the clerical abuse crisis, and he hardly inspires confidence in terms of a robust commitment to reform.”
photo credit: Centro Televisivo Vaticano